8B& 



■MM 



vsasm 



ran 



m 









V <« 

^ 

^ 



<f 



^ £ 






■'a 



\. .# 









V >> 






W 



o 






V * 



\ 0O x. 









\ * o 



"> 



.•v 



iff; <$ % 



=M 



S * * 7 



^ * a 






V 



s*% 
















o. 









= o 



x ^ 





SnmET 



DISCOURSES 



ON 



GOVERNMENT 



BY ALGERNON SIDNEY. 



.PUBLISHED FROM AX ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE AUTHOR. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED, 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE, 

AND 

A COPIOUS INDEX. 



IN THREE VOLUMES. 
VOL. I. 



PRINTED FOR RICHARD LEE, 

LT DEARE AND ANDREWS, 
1805. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

TACK 

Preface • . • 9 

The Life and Memoirs of Algernon Sidney 13 

His Trial 107 

His Apology 245 

DISCOURSES ON GOVERNMENT. 

Introduction 509 

Sect. i. The common notions of liberty are not from 

school divines, but from nature 315 

ii. Implicit faith belongs to fools, and truth is com- 
prehended by examining principles .... 
in. The. rights of particular nations cannot subsist 
if general principles, contrary to them, are re- 
ceived as true 326 

iv. To depend on the will of a man is slavery • . 327 
v. God leaves to man the choice of forms in govern- 
ment, and* those who constitute one form may 
abrogate it 332 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
vi. Abraham and the Patriarchs were not kings . 339 
vii. Nimrod was the first king during the life of 

Chush, Ham, Shem, and Noah 342 

viii. The power of a father belongs only to a father 349 
ix. Such as enter into society, must in some degree 

diminish their liberty 351 

x. No man comes to command many, unless by 

consent or by force 353 

xi. The pretended paternal right is divisible or indi- 
visible, if divisible, it is extinguished, if indi- 
visible, universal 356 

xn. There was no shadow of a paternal kingdom 

amongst the Hebrews, nor precept for it . .360 
xiii. If the paternal right had included dominion 
and was to be transferred to a single heir, it 
must perish if he were not known, and could 

be applied to no other person 366 

xiv. The ancients chose those to be kings who ex- 
celled in the virtues that are most beneficial to 

civil societies 378 

xv. God having given the government of the world 
to no one man, nor declared how it should be 

divided, left it to the will of man 390 

xvi. If a right of dominion were esteemed heredi- 
tary according to the law of nature, a multitude 
of destructive and inextricable controversies 

would thereupon arise 398 

xvn. Kings cannot convey the right of father upon 

princes, nor princes upon kings 406 

xviii. All just magisterial power is from the people . 418 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

CHAPTER II. 

Sect. i. That it is natural for nations to govern, or to 
choose governors ; and that virtue only gives a 
natural preference of one man above another, 
or reason why one should be chosen rather 

than another • • . . . 429 

li. Every man that hath children hath the right of 
a father, and is capable of preferment in a 
society composed of many ....... 446 

in. Government is not instituted for the good of 
the governor but of the governed, and power is 
not an advantage, but a burthen . . . • • 451 



PREFACE.* 



How highly the writings of wise and good mefi 
concerning government have been esteemed in all 
ages, the testimony of history, and the preservation 
of so many books composed by the ancients on that 
subject, do sufficiently manifest. And it may be 
truly said, that unless men have utterly abandoned 
themselves to all that is detestable, they have seldom 
attempted to detract from the worth of the assertors 
of liberty, though ambition and other passions have 
influenced them to act in opposition to it* When 
Augustus had surprised a young Roman, who was 
related to him, reading a political discourse of 
Cicero, he commended his judgment in that choice* 
The history of France, written by the president De 
Thou, with a spirit of freedom that might have been 
worthy of those who had lived before the violation of 

* By John Toland. Besides the "Discourses concerning 
Government," he also collected, and first published, Milton's 
prose-works ; and Harrington's works.... some of thern from th* 
original manuscripts. 

VOL. I. B 



10 PREFACE. 

their liberty, has been so generally valued by men of 
all ranks in that nation, that it is hard to find a book 
on any important subject, which has had so many 
editions. And the just esteem, that the emperor 
Charles the Fifth, made of the memoirs of Philip de 
Commines, though that author has given so many in- 
stances of his detestation of tyranny, may be enough 
to put this matter out of dispute. But, if all other 
proof were wanting, this implacable hatred and un- 
wearied industry of the worst of men to suppress 
such writings, would abundantly testify their ex- 
cellency. 

That nations should be well informed of their 
rights, is of the most absolute necessity; because 
the happiness or infelicity of any people entirely de- 
pends upon the enjoyment or deprivation of liberty ; 
which is so invincibly proved in the following dis- 
courses, that to endeavour to make it more clear, 
would be an unpardonable presumption. 

If any man think the publication of this work to 
be unseasonable at this time, he is desired to consi- 
der, that as men expect good laws only from good 
government, so the reign of a prince, whose title is 
founded upon the principle of liberty which is here 
defended, cannot but be the most proper, if not the 



PREFACE. 11 

only time to inform the people of their just rights; 
that from a due sense of their inestimable value, they 
may be encouraged to assert them against the at- 
tempts of ill men in time to come. 

It is not necessary to say any thing concerning 
the person of the author. He was so well known in 
the world, so universally esteemed by those who 
know how to set a just value upon true merit, and 
will appear so admirable in the following discourses, 
as not to stand in need of a flattering panegyric... 
But it may not be amiss to say something of the 
discourses now published. 

The paper delivered to the sheriffs immediately 
before his death, informs us, that he had left a 
large and a lesser treatise, written against the prin- 
ciples contained in Filmer's book; and that a small 
part of the lesser treatise had been produced for evi- 
dence against him at his trial. It is there also said, 
that the lesser treatise neither was, nor probably ever 
should have been finished. This therefore is the 
large work mentioned in that paper, and not the 
lesser, upon part of which the wicked sentence pro- 
nounced and executed against him was grounded. 

It remains only to add a few words for the satis- 
faction of the public, that these discourses are genu- 



12 PREFACE. 

ine. And here I shall not need to say, that they were 
put into the hands of a person of eminent quality and 
integrity, by the author himself ; and that the orig- 
inal is, in the judgment of those who knew him 
best, all written by his own hand: his inimitable 
manner of treating this noble subject, is instead of a 
thousand demonstrations, that the work can belong 
to no other than the great man whose name it bears. 



Uft and iWemotrs 



OF 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 



Though there is nothing more useful and en- 
tertaining than the lives of great and excellent men, 
yet it often happens, that through the neglect of their 
friends and contemporaries, proper materials are 
wanting; and thus it is in the present case. One 
cannot but wonder, that the life of our author, who 
Avas a man of such excellent abilities, such a lover 
of liberty, and who died for the glorious cause, was 
never attempted by any of his intimate friends, and 
such as were acquainted with the most remarkable 
passages concerning him. To retrieve this error as 
much as we can, we shall lay together in one view 
what can now be gathered from various authors, who 
occasionally mention the name and actions of Colo- 
nel S} r dney : and it is to be hoped, that this short 
account, though very imperfect, may do some justice 
to the memory of that noble person, and give some 
instruction to the reader. 



14 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

Algernon Sydney, descended from a verjr 
ancient and honourable family, was * second son 
of Robert, Earl of Leicester, by Dorothy, eldest 
daughter of Henry Piercy, Earl of Northumberland ; 
to whom his lordship was married in the year 1618. 
The exact year when our author was born is not 
certain, but it was probably about the year 1622. 
His noble father was careful to give him a good 
education ; and in the year 1632, when he went am- 
bassador to Denmark, took his son with him ; as 
also, when he was ambassador to the king of France 
in 1636; and the Countess, his mother, f in a letter 
to the Earl then at Paris, acquaints his lordship, that 
she hears her son much commended by all that came 
from thence ; and that one who spake very well of 
few, said "he had a huge deal of wit, and J much 
sweetness of nature. " Upon the breaking out of the 
rebellion in Ireland, the latter end of the year 1641, 
he had a commission for a troop of horse in the regi- 
ment of his father, who was then lord-lieutenant of 
that kingdom; and he went over thither with his 
eldest brother Philip, Lord Viscount Lisle, distin- 
guishing himself upon all occasions with great gal- 
lantry against the rebels* In the year 1643, he had the 
king's permission to return to England; for which 

* Collins' Peerage of England, and Memoirs of the lives 
and actions of the Sydneys. 

f Collins' Letters and Memorials of State, vol. ii. p. 445. 

$ This sweetness of nature (with a huge deal of wit) appears 
remarkably in the portrait of him, which was painted at Bru- 
sels in the year 1663, yet at Penshurst ; and made, whatever 
some have thought, an essential part of his noble disposition. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 15 

purpose the Earl his father gave him likewise a 
licence, dated at Oxford, June 22, that year ; but 
landing in Lancashire August following, he was, by 
order of Parliament, brought up in custody to Lon- 
don, where he was prevailed on to take a command 
under them: and on the 10th of May, 1644, the 
Earl of Manchester, major-general of several coun- 
ties, constituted him captain of a troop of horse in 
his own regiment. His brother, the Lord Viscount 
Lisle, being soon after appointed lieutenant-general 
of Ireland, and general of the forces there, gave him 
the command of a regiment of horse, to serve in the 
expedition thither: and it appears by the *MS. jour- 
nal of the Earl, his father, that he was likewise lieute- 
nant-general of the horse in Ireland, and governor of 
Dublin; and that before he went into that kingdom, 
he had the government of Chichester, and f was in 
the battle at Yoik, and several other engagements. 
In the same journal the Earl writes as follows.../' On 
the 8th of April, 1647, early in the morning, the 
House of Commons being then thin, and few of my 
son's friends present, it was moved by Mr. Glyn, 
the recorder, that Colonel Jones should be made 
Governor of Dublin in chief, and not deputy-gov- 
ernor to Algernon Sydney ; pretending that Jones 

* Collins' Memoirs, p. 150. 

f Colonel Sydney also, son to the Earl of Leicester, charged 
with much gallantry, at the head of my Lord of Manchester's 
regiment of horse, and came off with much honour, though 
with many wounds, the true badges of his honour ; and was 
-sent away afterward to London for cure of his wounds. 

The Parliamentary Chronicle, parts, p. 273. 



16 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

would not go, unless he might be governor, which 
was not true, Jones having accepted of the place of 
deputy- governor from the committee at Derby-house, 
who had also appointed the Lord Lisle to commis- 
sion his brother Algernon to be governor of Dublin, 
which he had done before he went into Munster. 
This motion of the recorder was seconded by old 
Sir Henry Vane, who pretended that his conscience 
moved him to be of opinion, that since the House 
had thought proper to recall the Lord Lisle, it was 
not fit to let his brother, Algernon Sydney, remain 
governor of so important a place as Dublin. Sir 
William Armyn and others opposed this motion, 
alledging, that if they had used one brother ill, they 
ought not to do injustice to the other, who had so 
well deserved of them. But it was carried against 
him, and the government was conferred on Jones. 
After which resolution, it was moved that some re- 
compence might be given to Algernon Sydney, ac- 
cording to his merit ; to which the House assented 
without opposition*" And on the 7th of May, Co- 
lonel Sydney had * the thanks of the House for his 
good services in Ireland; and was afterwards made 
governor of Dover, In January, 1648, he f was 
nominated one of King Charles' judges, though he 
did not sit among them. What his reasons were 
for declining this, we know not. It is manifest that 
he was, both by inclination and principle, a zealous 

* Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 246. Edit. 1732. 
t Our authority for this article is taken from Echard's History 
of England, 675 and 697. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 17 

republican; and, on that account, * a violent enemy 
to Oliver Cromwell, when he assumed to himself the 
government, to which, as well as to that of Richard, 
his successor, he was absolutely irreconcileable. 
But, upon the resignation of Richard, the Long Par- 
liament being restored in May, 1659, and having 
passed a declaration, " to secure the liberty and pro- 
perty of the people, both as men and christians, and 
that without a single person, kingship, or House of 
Lords, and to uphold the magistracy and the minis- 
try," he adhered to them; and was appointed one of 
the Council of State, with the Lord Fairfax, Brad- 
shaw, Sir Henry Vane, General Ludlow, Sir Ar- 
thur Haselrig, Fleetwood, Lambert, f Colonel Henry 

* Whitelocke, p. 678. 

f Within two days after this discourse, from Mr. Fiennes, 
Mr. Hyde walking between the Parliament House and West- 
minster, in the church-yard, met with Harry Marten, with 
whom he lived very familiarly, and speaking together about the 
proceedings of the House, Marten told him, that he would 
undo himself by his adhering to the court; to which he replied, 
that he had no relation to the court, and was only concerned 
to maintain the government, and preserve the law: and then 
told him, he could not conceive what he proposed to himself, 
for he did not think him to be of the opinion or nature with 
those men who governed the house ; and asked him what he 
thought of such and such men; and he very frankly answered 
he thought them knaves, and that when they had done as much 
as they intended to do, they should be used as they had used 
others. The other pressed him to say what he desired ; to 
which, after a little pause, he very roundly answered, i" do not 
think one man wise e?ioagh to govern us all; which was the first 
word he had ever heard any man speak to that purpose, and 

VOL. I. C 



18 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OP 

Marten, Mr. Thomas Challoner, Mr. Thomas Scot, 
* Mr. Henry Neville, Mr. Wallop, and others.... 

would without doubt, if it had then been communicated or at- 
tempted, been the most abhorred by the whole nation of any 
design that could be mentioned: and yet it appears it had even 
so early as 1640 or 1641, entered into the hearts of some des- 
perate persons ; that gentleman being at that time possessed of 
a very great fortune, and having great credit in his county.... 
The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, part i. p. 81. oct. edit. 
The Colonel was author of divers curious tracts ; and was also 
a principal promoter of the publishing of " The first Century 
of scandalous malignant priests," " The King's Cabinet open- 
ed," and other state tracts.. ..See his character in A. Wood's 
Athena Oxionienses, and in Bishop Kennett's historical regis- 
ter ; but drawn in bitterness of wrath and anger. 

* Henry Neville, second son of Sir Henry Neville, of Billing- 
beare, in Berks, was educated at Oxford. In the beginning of 
the civil war, he travelled into Italy and other countries, where- 
by he advanced himself much as to the knowledge of modern 
languages and men ; and returning in 1645, or thereabouts, 
became Recruiter in the Long Parliament, for Abingdon in 
Berkshire, at which time he was very intimate with Harry 
Marten, Thomas Challoner, Thomas Scot, James Harring- 
ton, and other zealous commonwealth's-men. In Nov. 1651, 
he was elected one of the Council of State, being then a fa- 
vourite of Oliver ; but when he saw that person gaped after 
the government by a single person, he left him, was out of 
his favour, and acted little during his government. In 1658, 
he was elected Burgess for Reading, to serve in Richard's Par- 
liament ; and when that person was deposed, and the Long 
Parliament shortly after restored, he was again elected one of 
the Council of State... .He was a great Rota-man, was one of 
the chief persons of James Harrington's club of common- 
wealth's-men, to instil their principles into others ; he being 
esteemed to be a man of good parts, and a well-bred gentle- 
man. At the appearance of " The Commonwealth of Oceana," 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 19 

On the 5th of June, he was likewise nominated, 
with Sir Robert Honeywood and Bulstrode White- 
it was greedily bought up, and coming into the hands of Tho- 
mas Hobbes of Malmsbury, he would often say, that Harry 
Neville had a finger in that pye, and those that knew them 
both were of the same opinion. By that book, and both their 
smart discourses and inculcations daily in coffee-houses, they 
obtained many proselytes. In 1659, in the beginning of Mi- 
chaelmas term, they had every night a meeting at the then 
Turk's Head, in New Palace Yard, Westminster, called 
Miles' Coffee-house, to which place their disciples and -vir- 
tuosi would commonly repair ; and their discourses about go- 
vernment and ordering of a commonwealth, were the most inge- 
nious and smart that ever were heard, the arguments in the Par- 
liament House being but flat to those. They had a ballotting- 
box, and ballotted how things should be carried, by way of 
Tentamen ; which not being used or known in England before, 
on that account, the room every evening was very full. Be- 
sides the author and Harry Neville, who were the prime men 
of this club, were Cyriac Skinner, a merchant's son of Lon- 
don, an ingenious young gentleman, and scholar to John Mil- 
ton, which Skinner sometimes held the chair ; Major John 
Wildman, Charles Wolseley of Staffordshire, Roger Coke, 
William Poultney, (afterwards a knight) who sometimes held 
the chair ; John Hoskyns, John Aubrey, Maximilian Pettie of 
Tetsworth in Oxfordshire, a very able man in these matters, 
and who had more than once turned the council-board of Oli- 
ver Cromwell ; Michael Mallet, Philip Carteret of the Isle 
of Guernsey, Francis Cradock, a merchant, Henry Ford, Ma- 
jor Venner, Thomas Marriet of Warwickshire, Henry Croone, 
physician, Edward Bagshaw, of Christ Church, and Robert 
Wood of Lincoln College, Oxford ; James Arderne, then or 
soon after a divine, with many others ; besides auditors and 
antagonists of note. Dr. William Petty w r as a Ifofa-man. The 
doctrine was very taking, and the more, as there was no pro- 
bability of the King's return. The greatest of the Parliament- 
men hated this design of rotation and ballotting, as being againM 



20 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

locke, Esq. to go commissioners to the Sound, * in 
order to mediate a peace between the Kings of 

their power. Eight or ten were for it, of which number Harry 
Neville was one, who proposed it to the House, and made it out 
to the members thereof, that except they embraced that way of 
government they would be ruined. The model of it was, that 
the third part of the Senate or House should rote out by ballot 
every year, so that every third year the said Senate would be 
wholly altered. No magistrate was to continue above three 
years, and all to be chosen by ballot ; than which choice noth- 
ing could be invented more fair and impartial, as was then 
thought, though opposed by many for several reasons. This 
club of commonwealth's-men lasted till about February 21, 
1659 ; at which time the secluded members being restored by 
General Monke, all their models vanished. ...After the Restora- 
tion, be absconded for a time ; but being seized, he was among 
Others imprisoned, though soon after set at liberty. 

Among various publications, there is a curious book of his, 
m octavo, intitled, " Plato Redivivus, or a Dialogue concerning 
government, wherein, by observations drawn from other king- 
doms and states, both ancient and modern, an endeavour is 
used to discover the present politic distemper of our own, with 
the remedies:' It came out first in the month of October, 1680, 
against the re-sitting of the Parliament, was very much bought 
up by the members thereof, and admired. Soon after, in the 
year 1681, it was republished with additions. In that book he 
says, " As for our History, it will not be forgotten. One 
of those, who was in employment from the year 40 to 60, 
hath written the history of those twenty years, a person of 
good learning and elocution ; and though he be now dead, yet 
his executors are very unwilling to publish it so soon, and to 
rub a sore that is not yet healed. But the story is writ with 
great truth and impartiality, although the author was engaged 

both in councils and arms for the Parliament." Reader, 

shouldst thou be possessed of such a history, bestow it upon the public, 

* The Committee of safety having dispatched a messenger 
to our fleet in the Sound, before the election of the Council of 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 21 

Sweden and Denmark. But Mr. Whitelocke was 
not willing to undertake this service, especially be- 
ing joined by those whom he knew would expect 
precedency of him who had formerly been ambassa- 

State, to acquaint them with the restitution of the Parliament, 
the officers of the several ships assembled, and sent an acknow- 
ledgment of their authority, with all possible demonstrations of 
satisfaction. Notwithstanding which, being highly sensible of how 
great importance the sea-affairs are to this nation, we ordered six 
frigates to be equipped with all diligence, and gave the com- 
mand of them to Lawson, making him at the same time vice- 
admiral of the fleet. And this we did, as well to prevent an 
invasion from Flanders, with which the Cavalier party threat- 
ened us, as to balance the power of Montague's party, who we 
knew was no friend to the commonwealth. We treated also 
with Mynheer Nieuport, ambassador from the States of Hol- 
land, that a good correspondence might be maintained between 
the two commonwealths, and that an accord might be made 
between the two kings of Denmark and Sweden, (who were then 
enemies,) by the interposition of the two States ; who, agreeing 
upon equitable terms, might be able to impose them on the re- 
fuser. And this we were in hopes to accomplish the rather, 
because neither the Dutch nor we pretended to any more than 
a freedom of passing and repassing the Sound, which could not 
well be if the command of it were in the hands of either of those 
Princes. The Dutch ambassador seemed very desirous to finish 
the treaty, but by several demands which he made in the behalf 
of their merchants, delayed it so long, that our agent in Holland 
had already concluded an agreement with the States, whereby 
the two commonwealths became engaged to compel tliat king 
that should refuse to accept' of the conditions which they thought 
just and reasonable. In order to put this resolution in execu- 
tion, the States of Holland appointed their plenipotentiaries, 
and we on our part did the same, sending thither Colonel Al- 
gernon Sydney, Sir Robert Honey wood, and one Mr. Boone, a 
merchant, to that end. 

Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, fol. edit. p. 254. 



$2 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

dor extraordinary to Sweden alone ; and therefore he~ 
endeavoured to excuse himself by reason of his old 
age and infirmities : and accordingly Mr. Thomas 
Boone was appointed in his room. The three pleni- 
potentiaries set out for the Sound in July following, 
and arrived at Elsineur on the 21st of that month; 
where they were attended by Admiral Montague, af- 
terwards Earl of Sandwich, who, in prospect of a 
revolution in favour of Charles II. to whom he was 
secretly engaged, resolved to return to England the 
month following, with the whole fleet. Colonel 
Sydney, who was averse to that resolution, wrote to 
the Council of State, from Copenhagen, to complain 
of the Admiral's conduct in that point. His letters 
to his father, printed from the Sydney papers, and 
those written by him in conjunction with the other 
plenipotentiaries, published among Secretary Thur- 
low's state papers, give us a distinct account of his 
negociations. 

As things soon after were evidently tending to the 
restoration of Charles II. Colonel Sydney wrote thus 
in the postscript of one of those letters to his fa- 
ther.... " I doe not say any thing of my owne inten- 
tions, in relation unto the changes that are fallen out 
already, or the others that are dayly expected. The 
truth is, I knowe them not ; the businesse is too dif- 
ficult to iudge of at this distance ; especially, not 
knowing what will be in my power or choice. If I 
doe not receaue newe orders, I shall returne speedily 
home, and shall then followe that way which your 
lordship shall command, and my best friends aduise, 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 23 

as farre as I can, without breaking the rules of hon- 
our or conscience; which I am sure will neuer be 
expected from me by your lordship, nor thoes whoes 
opinions I consider. While I am heare, I serue 
England, and will, with as much care and diligence 
as I can, endeauour to aduance its interests, and fol- 
lowe the orders of thoes that gouerne it. I reserue 
the determination of other points to councells upon 
the place." 

In another letter, dated at Stockholm, June 16th, 
1660, he writes.... " I am now at the utmost point 
of my iourney northward, and have nothing more in 
my thoughts, then to returne into England with as 
much expedition as I can, accordingly to the liberty 
granted unto my colleage and me by the Councell of 
State. We could not think it at all reasonable, to 
leaue the work in which wee were employed, when 
wee sawe a certainety of accomplishing it within a 
short time, unlesse wee had receaued a positiue com- 
mand : now the peace is concluded, I think we may 
very well iustify making use of that concession. I 
am heare alone : my colleague intended to make the 
same iourney, but the gout confined him unto hi» 
bed. I looke upon all the powers granted unto us, 
as extinguished by the comming in of the King, and 
doe not take upon me to act any thing as a publique 
minister, except it be giuing notice unto the crownes 
of Sweden and Denmark, of the restitution of the 
auncient gouernment in England, and the proclaim- 
ing of the King. Vpon this occasion I accept of a 
publique audience, which is heare offered unto me ; 



24 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

I should haue auoided it upon all other occasions.... 
I am detained heare somme dayes longer then I did 
expect; the Queene and Senate hauing bin out of 
towne when I arriued heare. I doe not at all knowe 
in what condition I am theare [in England] nor what 
effects I shall find of Generall Monk, his expressions 
of kindnesse towards me, and his remembrance of 
the auncient friendship that was between us ; but the 
Lord Fleetwood's letters to the Senate and priuate per- 
sons here, mention discourses that he makes much 
to my aduantage. I doe receaue neither more nor 
lesse ciuility heare then is ordinary, unlesse the ex- 
cuses I receaue for receauing noe more may deserue 
that name. I am in priuate told, they feare to offend 
the King by any extraordinary expressions towards 
me : your lordship may easily imagine how power- 
ful that consideration will be, when thoes in my condi- 
tion can pretend to no ciuilityes upon any other ac- 
count, but as they are respects unto theire superiors 
and masters." 

In his letter of July 22, 1660, he observes, that 
he and his colleague, had the day before, taken their 
leave of the King of Denmark ; and that himself was 
taking his way by Hamburgh and Holland ; but did 
not yet very well know, in what place he should stay, 
until he heard further from England. " I did hope, 5 ' 
says he, to his father, "that upon such occasions as 
thoes that haue lately befallen me, your lordship 
would have bin pleased to send me somme com- 
mands, and advices how to dispose of myself more 
particularly then by such a one as I had sent ouer 
with letters." 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 25 

His father's answer to him, dated at London, Au- 
gust 30, the same year, was as follows.* 

"Disuse of writing* hath made it uneasy to me; 
age makes it hard ; and the weakness of sight and 
hand makes it almost impossible. This may excuse 
me to every body, and particularly to you, who have 
not invited me much unto it ; but rather, have given 
me cause to think, that you were willing to save me 
the labour of writing, and yourself the trouble of 
reading my letters, For after you had left me sick, 
solitary and sad, at Penshurst ; and that you had re- 
solved to undertake the employment, wherein you 
Jiave lately been ; you neither came to give a fare- 
well, nor did so much as send one to me, but only 
writ a wrangling letter or two about money* &c>. 
And though, both before and after your going out 
of England, you writ to divers other persons ; the 
first letter that I received from you was dated, as I 
remember, the 13th of September; the second in 
November; wherein you take notice of your mo- 
ther's death : and, if there were one more, that was 
all, until Mr. Sterry came; who made such haste from 
Penshurst,. that coming very late at night, he would 
not stay to dine the next day, nor to give me time 
to write. It is true, that since the change of affairs 
here and of your condition there, your letters have 
been more frequent. And if I had not thought my 

* Familiar Letters written by John, late Earl of Rochester, 
and other persons of honour and quality. 

VOL. r. © 



26 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

silence better, both for you and myself, I would have 
written more than once or twice to you. But though 
for some reasons I did forbear, I failed not to desire 
others to write unto you; and with their own, to 
convey the best advice, that my little intelligence and 
weak judgment, could afford; particularly, not to 
expect new authorities nor orders from hence ; nor 
to stay in any of the places of your negociation ; nor 
to come into England; much less, to expect a ship 
to be sent unto you ; or to think, that an account 
was or could be expected of you here, unless it were 
of matters very different from your transactions 
there: that it would be best for you, presently to 
divest yourself of the character of a public minister; 
to dismiss all your train; and to retire into some 
safe place, not very near nor very far from England, 
that you might hear from your friends sometimes. 
And for this I advised Hamburgh, where I hear you 
are, by your man Powel, or by them that have re- 
ceived letters from you, with presents of wine and 
fish, which I did not reproach nor envy. Your last 
letter to me had no date of time or place ; but by 
another at the same time to Sir John Temple, of the 
28th of July, as I remember, sent by Mr. Missen- 
den, 1 guess that mine was of the same date. By 
those that I have had, I perceive that you have been 
misadvertised ; for though I meet with no effects nor 
marks of displeasure, yet I find no such tokens or 
fruits of favour, as may give me either power or 
credit for those undertakings and good offices, which 
perhaps you expect of me. And now I am again 
upon the point of retiring to my poor habitation ; 



ALGERNON SYDNEY, .27 

having for myself no other design, than to pass the 
small remainder of my days innocently and quietly ; 
and, if it pleases God, to be gathered in peace to my 
fathers. And concerning you, what to resolve in 
myself, or what to advise you, truly I know not; 
for you must give me leave to remember, of how 
little weight my opinions and counsels have been 
with you, and how unkindly and unfriendly you have 
rejected those exhortations and admonitions, which, 
in much affection and kindness, I have given you 
upon many occasions, and in almost every thing, 
from the highest to the lowest, that hath concerned 
you : and this you may think sufficient to discourage 
me from putting my advices into the like danger. 
Yet somewhat I will say : and first, I think it unfit, 
and perhaps as yet unsafe, for you to come into Eng- 
land; for I believe Powel hath told you, that he 
heard, when he was here, that you were likely to be 
excepted out of the general act of pardon and obli- 
vion : and though I know not what you have done 
or said here or there, yet I have several ways heard, 
that there is as ill an opinion of you, as of any, even 
of those that condemned the late King. And when 
I thought there was no other exception to you, than 
3 our being of the other party, I spoke to the General 
in your behalf, who told me that very ill offices had 
been done you; but he would assist you as much as 
justly he could. And I intended then also to speak 
to somebody else; you may guess whom I mean; 
but since that, I have heard such things of you, that 
in the doubtfulness only of their being true, no man 
will open his mouth for you. I will tell you some 



23 LIFE AtfD MEMOIRS OF 

passages, and you shall do well to clear yourself of 
them. It is said that the University of Copenhagen 
brought their album unto you, desiring you to write 
something therein; and that you did "scribere in 
albo" these words, 

".. Mamis haec inimica tyrannis 

"Ense petit placidam sub libcrtate quietrtn." 

and put your name to it. This cannot chuse but be 
publicly known, if it be true. It is also said, that a 
minister, who hath married a lady Laurence, here at 
Chelsea, but now dwelling at Copenhagen, being 
there in company with you, said, "I think you were 
none of the late King's judges, nor guilty of his 
death," meaning our King. * "Guilty ! said you, 
do you call that guilt? zvhy, it ivas the justest and 

- * C Guilty ! said you, do you call thai guilt ?) 

........ I confesse, this were a worke, and I hope it will be found 

fit for the divine pen of that second Saint Peeter the Lord Bishop 
of London, who followed this martyred King, and' king of Mar- 
tyrs to that block whereon his ever blessed head made a sacred 
crosse, and the nearest to that whereon the celestial king dyed, 
since the day of his glorious sufferings. 

Had that great and eminent chronologer of saints, Baronius, 
lived in these days, surely the life and death, the acts and pas- 
sions of this ever blessed saint, had alone furnished his elo- 
quent pen with heavenly worke, to have exceeded both in 
weight and glory, all that canonized catalogue of saints trium- 
phant, which for good use and imitation he hath brought to 
light. For what malice is there yet remaining amongst his ac- 
cursed enemies to deny, that in life and death, this King ran in 
the paths, and as neare as mortall man could doe, to the exam- 
ple and marke of Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of his 
faith and sufferings ? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 29 

bravest action that ever was done in England or any 
where else" with other words to the same effect. 
It is said also, that you having heard of a design to 

How he was betrayed and pursued, is witnessed by and in 
the yeares 1639, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45. How he fled from 
one sinfull nation to another wicked people, is recorded to the 
living infamy of the ever trayterous Scots in the year 46. How 
he was sold at a price by the said accursed Scots, to his cruel and 
causelesse enemies the Jewish English, is registred in the year 
47. How he was tossed between Herod the damned Indepen- 
dent, and Pilate the devilish Presbyterian ; and between them 
againe delivered to the tumults of the said accursed Jews to 
be crucified, is manifested in the year 48. How he was ar- 
raigned, condemned, buffeted, spit upon, and crucified by the 
conspiring scum of his own rebellious people, not once opening 
a mouthful of revenge against them, is yet written against 
them in letters of that sacred bloud, which from his blessed 
neck hasted over his divine head to advance his everlasting title 

CHARLES OF BRITAINE KING OF THE JEWS. And thlS Was 

engraven upon the even adamantine hearts of his bitter adver- 
saries on that most sorrowful day to us, but ever blessed to his 
majesty, Tuesday, January 30, 1648. How they parted his 
rayment amongst them, and cast lots upon his vesture, is wit- 
nessed by that furrier, to whom they sold his Majestie's rich 
sables gowne, because they would not injure their own profit. 
Thus farre his sufferings went along with his Saviour's, etc. 
etc. etc. 

The Royal Legacies of Charles, the first of that name, of 
Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, king and martyr, 
to his persecutors and murderers. Being a short para- 
phrase upon his Majestie's most christian and most cha- 
ritable speech, delivered immediately before his transla- 
tion. Dedicated to his Majestie's loyal and disconsolate 
subjects.. ..Printed in the year 1649, in quarto. 

But now the glory is departed from (our) Israel, the arke 

ef God is taken, and how is England become a widow ? made a 



30 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

seize upon you, or to cause you to be taken prisoner, 
you took notice of it to the King of Denmark him- 
self, and said, " I hear there is a design to seize upon 

prey unto cruell people and skilfull to destroy, who dayly force 
and prostitute ber unto their wicked purposes. For these things 
let England, (and every true hearted Englishman) say, J 
iveeft, mine eye, mine eye runneth downe nvith water, because the 
comforter (king charles) that should relieve my soul is Jarre 
from me* The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, 
etc. the life of our religion, of our lawes, of our liberties, is 
taken from us ; the image of God's power in supreme autho- 
rity, indemnity, and inviolability, is taken from us ; our phisi- 
tian, our nursing father, our comforter, our protectour is 
taken from us, and, for our sins, was taken in their pits ; so 
that now we want the wings of his protection among these 
heathen among whom we live ; we are now made very slaves 
unto the worst of heathen, a people without God, without 
faith, without law, without rule, without reason, without hu- 
manity, without all these, and whose unruly will only, is unto 
ail these, etc. etc. etc. 

The Subjects sorrow ; Or, Lamentations upon the death 
of Britaine's Josiah, king charles, most unjustly and 
cruelly put to death by his own people, before his Royal 
Palace, Whitehall, January 30, 1648. Expressed in a 
Sermon upon Lam. iv. 20. Wherein the divine and 
royal perogatives, personal virtues, and theological . 
graces of his late Majesty are briefly delivered ; and 
that his Majesty was taken away in God's mercy unto 
himselfe, and for the certaine punishment of these 
Ivingdomes, from the parallel is clearly /zro-yerf.... Lon- 
don, printed in the yeare 1649, in quarto. 

The person that was now murthered, was not the Lord 

of Glory, but a glorious lord, Christ's own vicar, his lieu- 
tenant and vicegerent here on earth, within his dominions. 
And therefore by all lawes divine and humane, he was privi- 
leged from any punishment that could be inflicted by men. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 31 

me; but who is it that hath that design? Est ce noire 
bandit?" by which you are understood to mean the 
King. Besides this, it is reported, that you have 

Albeit he was as inferiour to Christ as a man is unto God, the 
creature unto the immortall Creator ; yet was his privilege of 
inviolability farre more cleare than was Christ's. For Christ 
was not a temporal Prince, his Kingdome was not of this 
world, and therefore when he vouchsafed to come into the 
world, and to become the sonne of man, he did subject him- 
selfe unto the law ; hee, who only could choose when to be 
borne, made choise to be borne at that time when there was a 
decree for taxing all the world, that so soone as he was borne 
he might be enrolled a subject unto Caesar ; he lived as a sub- 
ject, payed tribute unto Csesar; he submitted unto Pilat's ju- 
risdiction, acknowledging that hee had power given him from 
above. But our gracious Soveraigne was well knowne to be a 
temporal Prince, a free monarch, and their undoubted Sove- 
raigne, to whom they did all owe and had sworne allegiance? 
and therefore he could not be judged by any power on earth. 
He disclaimed their authority, as he well might ; for they had 
no power at all over any, much lesse over him. And what 
power they usurped, was not de sufier, as Pilat's, but de subter y 
from beneath, even from the angel of the bottomlesse pit, 
whose name is Abaddon ; for as he seeks the destruction of 
all men, so especially of Kings, because by their government 
peace is preserved, justice executed, and religion maintained. 
But from above they had no power; for God never gave unto 
the people power over their King ; as is evident by scripture, 
by the law of nature and nations, by the knowne lawes of Eng- 
land, by cleare and undeniable reasons, and by the constant 
doctrine and practice of the true ancient catholic church. And 
yet those monstrous traytors, have sacrilegiously invaded God's 
throne, and usurped his office, whose peculiar it is to be judge 
of Kings; and so have ventured to try, judge, condemne, and 
execute their King, in despite of all law, reason, religion, na- 
ture and God himselfe, ect. etc. etc. 

The Marty rdome of King Charles : Or his conformity 



32 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

been heard to say many scornful and contemptuous 
things of the King's person and family, which, un* 
less you can justify yourself, will hardly be forgot- 

with Christ in his sufferings. In a sermon on 1 Cor* 
ii. 8. (Which none of the princes of this world knew: 
for had they knowne it, they would not have crucified 
the Lord of Glory.) Preached at Bredah, before his Ma- 
jesty of Great Britaine and the Princesse of Orange. 
By the Bishop of Downe, June 3d and 13th, 1649. Chri- 
stiani nunquam sunt inventi Cassiani....Tertull. Hague, 
printed 1649, in quarto. 
Extracts of Restoration, and anniversary thirtieth of Ja- 
nuary sermons, might have been likewise added, but 
these shall suffice. 

The Parliament of England, elected by the people whom 
they represent, and by them trusted and authorized for the 
common good, having long contended against tyranny, and 
to procure the well-being of those whom they serve, and to 
remove oppression, arbritrary power, and all opposition to the 
peace and freedom of the nation; do humbly and thankfully 
acknowledge the blessing of Almighty God upon their weak 
endeavours, and the hearty assistance of the well-affected in 
this work, whereby the enemies thereunto, both public and 
secret, are become unable, for the present, to hinder the per- 
fecting thereof. 

And to prevent their power to revive tyranny, injustice, war, 
and all our former evils, Parliament have been necessitated to 
the late alterations in the government, and to that settlement, 
which they judge most conducible to the honor of God, and the 
good of the nation, the onely end and duty of all their labors. 

And that this may appear the more clearly and generally, 
to the satisfaction of all who are concerned in it, they have 
thought fit to declare and publish the grounds of their proceed- 
ings. 

They suppose it will not be denyed, that the first institution 
of the office of a king in this nation, was by agreement of the. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. S3 

ten; for such personal offences make deeper impres- 
sions, than public actions, either of war or treaty. 
Here is a resident, as he calls himself, of the King 

people ; who chose one to that office for the protection and 
good of them who chose him, and for their better government, 
according to such laws as they did consent unto. And let 
those who have observed our stories, recollect how very few 
have performed the trust of that office with righteousness and 
due care of their subjects' good. And how many have made it 
their study and labor, to satisiie their particular ambition and 
power, with high pressures and miseries upon their subjects ; 
and with what horrid prodigality of Christian blood, upon punc- 
tilios of their own honor, personal titles and estates. And in 
the whole line of them, how far hath the late king exceeded 
all his predecessors, in the destruction of those whom they were 
bound to preserve ; and in stead of spreading his protection to 
all, scarce permitting any to escape the violence of his fury. 

To manifest this truth, it will not be improper to take a 
view of some passages in his reign, wherein he much further 
out-went all his forefathers in evil, than any example can be 
found of punishment, etc. etc. etc. 

A declaration of the Parliament of England, expressing 
the grounds of their late proceedings, and of settling 
the present government in the way of a free state...* 
London, printed March 22, 1648, in quarto. 

The Parliament likewise pulled down the king's statutes at 
the west end of St. Paul's and in the Royal Exchange, causing 
the following inscription to be placed in the nich of the latter, 

EXIT. TYRANUS. REGVM. VLTIMVS 
ANNO. LIBERTATIS. ANGLIAE. RESTITUTAE. PRIMO 
ANNO. DOM. MDCXXXXVIII. JAN. XXX. 

May it please your lordship, my lord president, and this 
high court, erected for the most comprehensive, impartial, and 

VOL* I. E 



34 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

of Denmark, whose name I hear is Pedcombe; he 
hath visited me, and offered his readiness to give 
you any assistance in his power or credit, with the 

glorious piece of justice, that ever was acted and executed 
upon the theatre of England, for the trying and judging of 
Charles Stuart, whom God in his wrath gave to be a king to 
this nation, and will, I trust, in great love, for his notorious 
prevarications and blood-guiltiness, take him aw T ay from us ; he 
that hath been the original of all injustice, and the principal 
author of more mischiefs to the free-born people of this nation, 
than the best arithmetician can well enumerate, stands now to 
give an account of his stewardship, and to receive the good of 
justice, for all the evil of his injustice and cruelty. Had he 
ten thousand lives, they could not all satisfie for the numerous 
horrid, barbarous massacres of myriades and legions of inno- 
cent persons, which by his commands, commissions, and pro- 
curements (or at least all the world must needs say, which he 
might have prevented ; and he that suffers any man to be killed, 
when he may save his life without danger of his own, is a mur- 
therer) have been cruelly slain, and inhumanely murthered, in 
this renowned Albion; Anglia hath been made an Aceldama, 
and her younger sister Ireland a land of ire and misery. But 
now to dissect the charge, etc. etc. etc. 

King Charles his case. Or an appeal to all rational men 
concerning his tryal at the high court of justice. Be- 
ing for the most part, that which was intended to have 
been delivered at the bar, if the king had pleaded to the 
charge, and put himself upon a fair tryal, etc. By 
John Cook of Gray's Inn, Barrester.... London, printed 
1640, in quarto. 

The premises from first to last considered, that doctrine 

which prerogativeth kings above the stroke of human justice, 
upon the account of their being unaccountable unto men for 
whatsoever they do, (which the Parliament taketh notice in their 
declaration of March 17, 1648, to have been the late king's as- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 35 

ambassador, Mr. Alfield, who was then expected, 
and is now arrived here, and hath had his first audi- 
ence. I have not seen Mr. Pedcombe since; but 

sertion) appears to be very extravagant, and eccentrical to all 
principles both of reason and religion. Such an unaccountable 
officer, (as the said declaration well expresseth it) were a 
strange monster to be permitted by mankind. For if the main 
ground of erecting public administrations of justice and courts 
of human judicature, in all politics and states whatsoever, be, 
both in reason and religion, to secure and protect those, who 
live justly and peaceably, against the violence and injustice of 
oppressours and unjust men ; it must needs be contrary unto 
both, to exempt such persons from the jurisdiction of these 
courts and administrations, who have always the greatest op- 
portunities and temptations, and, for the most part, the strong- 
est bent of disposition and will, to practise such unrighteous- 
nesse and oppression, etc. etc. etc. 

The Obstructours of justice. Or a defence of the honora- 
ble sentence passed upon the late King by the high 
court of justice. Opposed chiefly to " The serious and 
faithful representation and vindication of some of the 
Ministers of London." As also to " The humble ad- 
dresse of Dr. Hammond, to His Excellencie and coun- 
cel of " Warre," etc. By John Goodwin. ...London, 
1649, in quarto. 

Hactenus, quod initio institueram ut meorum civium fac- 
ta egregia contra insanam et lividissimam furentis sophistae 
rabiem, et domi et foris defenderem, jusque Populi commune 
ab injusto regum dominatu assererem, non id quidem regum 
odio, sed tyrannorum, Deo bene juvante videor jam mihi absol- 
visse : neque ullum sine responso vel argumentum, vel exem- 
plum, vel testimonium ab adversario allatum sciens praetermisi, 
quod quidem firmitatis in se quicquam, aut probationis vim ul- 
lam habere videretur : in alteram fortasse partem culpae pro- 
prior, quod saepiusculae ineptiis quoque ejus, et argutiis tritis- 



36 LIFE AND MEMOIRS Or 

within a few days, I will put him in mind of his pro- 
fession of friendship to you, and try what he can or 
will do. Sir Robert Honey wood is also come hither ; 

simis, quasi argumentis, respondentia, id iis tribuisse videar, 
quo dignae non erant. Unum restat, et fortasse maximum, ut 
vos quoque, o Cives, adversarium hunc vestrum ipsi refutetis ; 
quod nulla ratione video posse fieri, nisi omnium maledicta 
vestris optime factis exuperare perpetuo contendatis. Vota 
vestra et preces ardentissimas Deus, cum servitutis haud uno 
genere oppressi, ad eum confugistis, benigne exaudiit. Quae 
duo in vita homi num mala sane maxima sunt, et virtuti dam- 
nosissima, tyrannis et superstitio, iis, vos gentium /irimos, glo- 
riose liberavit ; earn animi magnitudinem vobis injectit, ut de- 
victum armis vestris et deditium regem judicio inclyto judicare, 
et condemnatum punire primi mortalium non dubitaretis. Post 
hoc f acinus tarn illustre, nihil humile aut augustum^ nihil non mag- 
num atque excelsum et cogitare et faccre debcbctis, Quam Iau- 
dem ut assequamini, hac sola incedendum est via, si ut hostes 
bello domuistis, ita ambitionem, avaritiam, opes, et secundarum 
rerum corruptelas, quae subigunt caeteras gentes hominum, 
ostenderitis vos etiam inermes medi in pace omnium mortalium 
fortissime debellare ; si, quam in repellenda servitute fortitudi- 
nem praestitistis, earn in libertate conservanda justitiam, tem- 
perantiam, moderationem praestiteritis. His solis argumentis 
et testimoniis evincere potestis, non esse vos illos, quos hie pro» 
briis insequitur, fierduelles, latrones, sicarios, parricidas^ fana- 
ticos ; non vos ambitionis aut alieni invadendo studio, non se- 
ditione, aut pravis ullis cupiditatibus, non amentia aut furore 
percitos Regem trucidiasse, sed amore libertatis, religionis, 
justitiae, honcstatis, patriae denique charitate accensos, ty?~an- 

num fiiiniisse 

Joannis TVIiltoni, Angli, pro Populo Anglicano, Defensio, 

contra Claudii, alias Salmasii Defensionem Regiam.... 

Londini, typis Du Gardianis, A. D. 1651, in folio, 

quarto, duodecimo. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 37 

and as I hear, the King is graciously pleased to ad- 
mit him to his presence ; which will be somewhat the 
better for you ; because then the exceptions against 

Now therefore, right honorable ! when I look upon 

you, and behold you more highly intrusted than kings, and far 
more nobly adorned, upon a better ground than they were, with 
all the rights, interests, and privileges of the people ; when I 
consider how God hath wrested the sword out of their hands, 
and placed it in yours for our protection, with the conservation 
of our peace and liberties, and made you the happy instruments 
of freeing us from the yoke of kings ; when I call to minde, 
how nobly you asserted the rights of England against domes- 
tic tyrannie, upon the neck of the late king, and laid the foun- 
dation of our freedom upon the highest act of justice ; (when 
justice sat more gloriously infchroned than ever it did before on 
any earthly tribunal) I am raised with more than ordinarie con- 
fidence, that the same spirit of justice, which actuated you in your 
former atchievements for our establishment by land against 
him and his posteritie, will carry you on, as you have begun, 
to vindicate those rights by sea against all foreign violations 
and invasions. It is your honor, that God hath made you foun- 
ders of the most famous and potent republic this day in the 
world ; and your felicitie, that all your enemies have no other 
ground of quarrel, but that you are a republic : for though 
these Netherlander speak it not out in words, yet they have 
often told you so in behaviour, etc. 

Of the dominion, or ownership of the sea, two books. 
Written at first in Latin, and intituled, " Mare Clau- 
sum, seu De Dominio Maris." By John Selden. Trans- 
lated into English ; and set forth with some additional 
evidences and discourses, by Marchamont Nedham. 
Published by special command. ...London, printed by 
William Du Gard, 1652, in folio. 
Marchamont Nedham was author of divers curious and 
very scarce tracts ; and of that celebrated journal, 
intitled " Mercurius Politicus, comprising the summe 
of all intelligence j with the affairs and designs now on 



33 LITE AND MEMOIRS OF 

your employment and negociation, wherein you were 
colleagues, will be removed, and you will have no 
more to answer for, than your own particular beha- 

foot in the three nations of England, Ireland, and Scot- 
land. In the defenee of the commonwealth, and for in- 
formation of the people." It commenced June 9, 1649, 
went forth once a week, ended April 1660, and was pub- 
lished by authority of the council of state. 

The act for the militia being passed, the command of all the 
forces and garrisons settled on Monk, and the fleet in his power 
in conjunction with Colonel Montague ; the pretended parlia- 
ment authorized their council of state to provide for the public 
safety on all emergencies, and to dispose affairs as they should 
think fit till the meeting of the next Parliament: which being 
done, and the house ready to pass the act for their own disso- 
lution ; Mr. Crew, who had been as forward as any man in be- 
ginning and carrying on the war against the late king, moved, 
that before they dissolved themselves, they would bear their 
witness against the horrid murder, as he called it, of the king. 
This unexpected motion prevailed with many then present to 
deny their concurrence to that act against the king, though not 
to reflect in the same manner on those who had been concerned 
in it : and one of them concluding his discourse with protest- 
ing, that he had neither hand nor heart in that affair ; Mr. 
Thomas Scot, who had been so much deluded by the hypo- 
crisy of Monk, as I have already related, in abhorrence of that 
base spirit, said, that though he knew not where to hide his 
head at that time, yet he durst not refuse to own, that not only 
his hand but his heart also was in it: and after he had produced 
divers reasons to prove the justice of it, he concluded, that he 
should desire no greater honor in this world, than that the fol- 
lowing inscription should be engraved on his tomb, Here lieth 
one ivho had a hand and a heart in the execution of Charles Stuart 
late king of England. Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, p. 329. 

See also Toland's life of Milton, Edit. 2. p. 84, and 245, in 
the notes. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 39 

viour. I believe Sir Robert Honey wood will be in- 
dustrious enough, to procure satisfaction to the mer- 
chants in the business of money; wherein he will 
have the assistance of Sir John Temple, to whom I 
refer you for that and some other things. I have 
little to say to your complaints of your sister Strang- 
ford's unequal returns to your affection and kind- 
ness; but that I am sorry for it, and that you are 
well enough served for bestowing so much of your 
care where it was not due, and neglecting them to 
whom it was due; and I hope you will be wiser 
hereafter. She and her husband have not yet paid 
the thousand pounds, whereof you are to have your 
part by my gift; for so, I think, you are to under- 
stand it, though your mother desired it: and if, for 
the payment thereof, your being in England, or in 
some place not far off, be necessary, as some pre- 
tend, for the sealing cf some writings, I think that 
and other reasons sufficient to persuade you to stay a 
while where you are, that you may hear frequently 
from your friends and they from you. I am wholly 
against your going into Italy as yet, till more may 
be known of your condition, which, for the present, 
is hard ; and I confess that I do not yet see any more 
than this, that either you must live in exile, or very 
privately here and perhaps not safely; for, though 
the bill of indemnity be lately passed, yet if there be 
any particular and great displeasure against you, as 
I fear there is, you may feel the effects thereof from 
the higher powers, and receive affronts from the in- 
ferior. Therefore you were best to stay at Ham- 
burgh, which, for a northern situation,, is a good 



40 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

place and healthful. I will help you as much as I 
can, in discovering and informing you of what con- 
cerns you ; though, as I began, so I must end, with 
telling you, that writing is now grown troublesome 
to your affectionate Leicester." 

But Colonel Sydney did not continue long at Ham- 
burgh ; for he was at Frankfort upon the Main, on 
the 8th of September, 1660, from whence he wrote 
to his father, being determined then for Italy : and 
we find him at Rome in November following, whence 
he wrote likewise to his father, on the 19th of that 
month. 

"I think the councell given me by all my friends 
to keepe out of England for a while, doth too clearely 
appeare to have bin good, by the usage my compan- 
ions have already receaved, and perhaps will be yet 
further verified by what they will find. Nothing 
doth see me more certaine to me, then that I must 
either have procured my safety, * by such meanes as 

* May 1660, Sir Arthur Haselrigge, one of those who were 
esteemed to be so maliciously active in opposition to his Majes- 
ty's government, as to be afterwards excepted in the act of in- 
demnity from any condition of pardon, had lately come to Gen- 
eral Monk, when he perceived the revolution to hasten towards 
the restoration of the king, and expostulated with him about it, 
in reference to the security of his own condition. The General 
was unwilling to make him desperate, because he had at that 
time a regiment of horse and a regiment of foot in the garrisons 
of Newcastle, Tinmouth, Berwick, and Carlisle, under his go- 
vernment ; and therefore told him, if he would quietly give up 
his command, and retire to his house ; he would endeavour to 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 41 

Sir Arthur Haselrigge is saved to have used; or 
runne the fortune of somme others^ whoe have shew- 
ed themselves more resolute. I hope my being here, 
will in a short time shewe that the place was not ill 
chosen, and that besides the liberty and quiet which 
is generally granted to all persons here, I may be 
admitted into that company, the knowledge of which 
will very well recompence my iourney. I was ex- 
treamely unwilling to stay in Hamburg or any place 
in Germany, finding myself too apt to fall too deepe 
into melancholy, if I have neither businesse nor com- 
pany to divert me ; and I have such an aversion to 
the conversation and entertainements of that country, 
that if I had stayed in it I must have lived as a her- 
mite, though in a populous citty. I am here well 
enough at ease, and believe I may continue soe. 
Unlesse somme boddy from the court of England 
doth think it worth theire paines to disturb me, I see 
nothing likely to arise here to trouble me. I have 
already visited severall cardinalls. To morrowe I 
intend to pay the same respect to the cardinal Ghigi, 
nephew to the Pope. He. hath already granted me 

secure him in his life and estate, and doubted not to effect it. 
This being made known at a following conference by the House 
of Commons, was justified with great modesty by the Duke of 
Albemarle in the House of Peers, and his life was thereupon 
pardoned in the act ; and a small time after his estate also was, 
at the mediation of the Duke, granted to his heir, a man averse 
to his father's disloyal principles, Sir Arthur himself a while af- 
ter his imprisonment dying of a fever in the tower. 

Bishop Rennet's hist. reg. p. 136.. 

VOL. I. F 



42 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

the liberty of waiting upon him, which was signified 
unto me by an other eminent person of the same 
robe and degree. They are all generally civ ill, and 
I ask no more.' 

His correspondence with his father during his stay 
at Rome, will be seen in the letters taken from the 
Sydney papers, now first added, with the letters to 
Mr. Savile and his tryal, to this edition. 

Several of his friends having been importunate 
with him for his return to England, he wrote * the 
following letter; but the want of date makes the par- 
ticular time of writing it uncertain. 

c SIR, 

'I am sorry I cannot in all things conform myself 
to the advices of my friends. If theirs had any joint 
concernment with mine, I should willingly submit 
my interest to theirs ; but when I alone am interest- 
ed, and they only advise me to come over as soon as 
the act of indemnity is passed, because they think it 
best for me, I cannot wholly lay aside my own judg- 
ment and choice. I confess, we are naturally inclin- 
ed to delight in our own country, and I have a par- 
ticular love to mine. I hope I have given some 
testimony of it. I think that being exiled from it is 
a great evil, and would redeem myself from it with 
the loss of a great deal of my blood. But when that 
country of mine, which used to be esteemed a para- 
dise, is now like to be made a stage of injury; the 

* Familiar letters of John, late Earl of Rochester, etc. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 43 

liberty which we hoped to establish, oppressed; lux- 
ury and lewdness set up in its height, instead of 
the piety, virtue, sobriety, and modesty, which we 
hoped God, by our hands, would have introduced; 
the best of our nation made a prey to the worst ; the 
Parliament, court, and army, corrupted; the people 
enslaved; ail things vendible; no man safe, but by 
such evil and infamous means, as flattery and brib- 
ery ; what joy can I have in my own country in this 
condition? Is it a pleasure to see, that all I love in 
the world is sold and destroyed? Shall I renounce 
all my own principles, learn the vile court arts, and 
make my peace by bribing some of them? Shall 
their corruptions and vice be my safety ? Ah ! no ; 
better is a life among strangers, than in my own 
country upon such conditions. Whilst I live, I will 
endeavour to preserve my liberty; or at least, not 
consent to the destroying of it. I hope I shall die 
in the same principles in which I have lived, and will 
live no longer than they can preserve me. I have in 
my life been guilty of many follies; but, as I think, 
of no meanness, I will not blot and defile that which 
is past, by endeavouring to provide for the future. 
I have ever had in my mind, that when God should 
cast me into such a condition, as that I cannot save 
my life but by doing an indecent tiling, he shews me 
the time is come wherein I should resign it : and 
when I cannot live in my own country but by such 
means as are worse than dying in it, I think he shews 
me, I ought to keep myself out of it. Let them 
please themselves with making the king glorious, who 
think a whole people may justly be sacrificed for ths 



44 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

interest and pleasure of one man, and a few of his 
followers ; let them rejoice in their subtilty, who by- 
betray ing the former powers , have gained the favour 
of this, not only preserved, but advanced themselves 
in these dangerous changes. Nevertheless, perhaps 
they may find, the king's glory is their shame ; his 
plenty the people's misery; and that the gaining of 
an office or a little money, is a poor reward for de- 
stroying a nation, *zvhich, if it were preserved in 

(* Which, if it ivere preserved in liberty and -virtue,) 

And now that I am fallen unawares into such profound reflec- 
tions on the periods of government, and the flourishing and de- 
cay of liberty and letters ; I cannot be contented to consider 
merely of the inchantment which wrought so powerfully upon 
mankind, when first this universal monarchy was established. 
I must wonder still more, when I consider how after the extinc- 
tion of this Cesarian and Claudian family, and a short interval 
of princes raised and destroyed with much disorder and public 
ruin, the Romans should regain their perishing dominion and 
retrieve their sinking state, by an after race of wise and able 
princes successively adopted, and taken from a private state to 
rule the empire of the world. They were men who not only 
possessed the military virtues, and supported that sort of disci- 
pline in the highest degree; but as they sought the interest of 
the world, they did what was in their power to restore liberty, 
and raise again the perishing arts, and decayed virtue of man- 
kind. But the season was now past ! The fatal form of govern- 
ment was become too natural ; and the World, which had bent 
under it, and was become slavish and dependant, had neither 
power nor will to help itself. The only deliverance it could ex- 
pect, was from the merciless hands of barbarians, and a total 
dissolution of that enormous empire and despotic power, which 
the best hands could not preserve from being destructive to hu- 
man nature. For even barbarity and Gothicism were already 
entered into arts, e'er the savages had made any impression on 



ALGERNON SYDNEY* 43 

liberty and virtue, would truly be the most glorious 
in the world ; and that others may find, they have 
with much pains purchased their own shame and 
misery, a dear price paid for that which is not worth 

the empire* All the advantage which a fortuitous and almost 
miraculous succession of good princes could procure their 
highly favoured arts and sciences, was no more than to pre^ 
Serve, during their own time, those perishing remains which had 
For a while with difficulty subsisted, after the decline of liberty. 
Not a statue, hot a medal, not a tolerable piece of architecture 
could shew itself afterwards. Philosophy, wit and learning, in 
which some of these good princes had themselves been so re- 
nowned, fell with them. And ignorance and darkness over^ 
spread the World, and fitted it for the chaos and ruin which 
ensued. 

The Earl of Shaftsbufy, in his " Advice to ail Author." 

From their railleries of this kind on the barbarity and misery 
of our island, one cannot help reflecting, on the surprising fate 
and revolutions of kingdoms. How Rome, once the mistress 
of the world, the seat of arts, empire and glory, now lies sunk 
in sloth, ignorance and poverty; enslaved to the most cruel, as 
Well as the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religi- 
ous imposture. While this remote country, evidently the jest 
and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat 
of liberty, plenty, and letters ; flourishing in all the arts and 
refinement of civil life; yet running, perhaps, the same course 
Which Rome itself had run before it; from virtuous industry to 
Wealth ; from wealth to luxury ; from luxury to an impatience 
of discipline and corruption of morals ; till by a total degene- 
racy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it 
falis a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and with the loss 
of liberty, losing every thing else that is valuable, sinks gradu- 
ally again into its original barbarity. 

Dr. Conyers Middleton, the excellent, in 
his " Life of Cicero," vol* I. p. 494* 



46 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

keeping, nor the life that is accompanied with it. 
The honour of English parliaments hath ever been 
in making the nation glorious and happy, not in sell- 
ing and destroying the interest of it, to satisfy the 
lusts of one man. * Miserable nation ! that from so 

C* Miserable nation! that from so great a height of glory,) 

The English republicans took things exactly right ; and that 
in order to the accomplishing of a design that would take up 
all their lifetime, (for such men ought never to conceive mean 
ones, after the execution whereof they must be put to the trou- 
ble of projecting anew, or live lazily and be exposed to conspi- 
racies against them) they thought it would be their best way to 
begin with the destruction of the United Provinces, which lay 
next their coasts, and flourished in trade above any other coun- 
try in the world; and when once they had effected this, they 
were in hopes they should easily remove any obstacle in their 
way to attain the dominion of the seas ; insomuch, that if 
the fortune of war should favour their first enterprize, I do not 
think they have any design to make a peace with a nation they 
have a mind utterly to destroy, and to whom they will pro- 
pose such hard terms, that upon the refusal of them, you will 
at last find them prepared to make terrible descents in divers 
parts of Zealand and North-Holland, to break the banks and 
the other dikes, that keep the flat country from being drowned. 
There needs no more than this sort of blood-letting to make 
Amsterdam and all the other cities desolate : for it would sig- 
nify little to them to seize the Brill or some other place, seeing 
their design is to destroy the trade of Holland, and to trans- 
fer it into their own country ; and it would be of little impor- 
tance to them that the King of Spain should recover the 
Seven Provinces ; that the merchants of Amsterdam should 
remove to Antwerp, and the manufactures of Leyden and 
Harlem to Ghent and Bruges; for it would require many years 
to settle things there, and the English would have opportunity- 
enough to hinder them from having any necessary materials 
but such as passed through their hands, and their manufactures 



ALGERNON" SYDNEY. 47 

great a height of glory, is fallen into the most despi- 
cable condition in the world; of having all its good 
depending upon the breath and will of the vilest per- 

to be transported any where but in English bottoms : for it would 
be very easy for them to stop up the mouths of the ports, and 
to go up the Schelde, even in sight of Antwerp, from whence 
nothing must come out but will be taken by their ships. By 
this means, and the notion I have of their designs, no nation in 
the world, in a few years time, would have any seamen, ships, 
or skill in maritime affairs, besides themselves : for Holland being 
intirely ruined, the Dutch must serve on board their fleets, and 
all the shipwrights, sailmakers, and roperaakers, would be oblig- 
ed to go and earn their living in the sea-port towns of England ; 
and this they would be the more inclined to do, because there is 
more wages given there, and people live better. When this 
noble and rich province, which within the extent of less than five 
and twenty leagues, contains eighteen large towas and four hun- 
dred villages, of which the Hague is the finest in the world, 
shall be reduced to this sad plight ; it is then likely that the 
English will turn their arms against Denmark, in order to seize 
the passage of the Sundt, either by main force or rather some 
treaty, by which they will be willing to give the King more 
than the profit it brought him, but at the same time will oblige 
Norway to sell their wood to no other nation but the English.... 
The cities of Embden, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, all the 
coast of the Baltick, and the whole kingdom of Sweden, durst 
appear no longer at sea, but under English colours; and perhaps 
the formidable republic will be content, in consideration of her 
commissions granted to them, to receive certain duties from the 
goods she allows them in her name to transport, only along 
these northern parts. They will in time send a more powerful 
fleet to block up the river of Lisbon; while another sails to 
Brazil, Guinea, and the East-Indies ; with a design to spare the 
Portuguese merchants and the East-India Companies, the la- 
bour of transporting the sugars, silks, spices, and other com- 
modities they come hither for, into Europe : and if Spain pre- 



48 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

sons iii it J cheated and sold by them they trusted? 
Infamous traftick, equal almost in guilt to that of 
Judas! In all preceding ages, parliaments have been 

tends to say any thing against them, they will, without any 
more ado, seize the Streights' mouth and send an hundred and 
fifty ships of war into the Mediterranean) out of which they can 
very easily drive the naval force of the other potentates of 
Europe, were they all joined together against them. 

The English having in this manner usurped the dominion of 
the seas, the trade of all the European nations, and part of the 
rest of the world j all the earth must submit to them, work for 
nobody but them, and they will, from time to time, come into 
their ports, and sweep away all their treasure : every thing that 
is rare and all the conveniences of life, produced either by art 
or nature, will be reserved for England, which will be the only 
country that can purchase them or possess them of her own.... 
For, as we see, that since the settling of trade in Holland, that 
province is become the store-house for linen, woollen, and all 
sorts of manufactures, though there is neither flax, wool, nor, 
in any manner, any other commodities which they work up, 
grows there, but they must have them from other countries ; so 
every thing that England wants at this time will abound there, 
and the best artificers will flock thither, insomuch, that if they 
would have any fine linen or good cloth for wear, in another 
country, the flax and wool was to be sent to be manufactured in 
England. Pray consider then, what vast wealth this country 
must acquire in less than fifty years ! And how miserable must 
the rest of Europe be, since they can transport nothing by sea 
from one nation to another, but in English ships ? They will 
always have money to receive in all the ports they come at, and 
never leave any of their own there. What the English want, 
they will make compensation for by way of exchange, or readily 
send over into England, upon the score of the manufactures 
there they have occasion for; as we have seen the Dutch East- 
India Company have pearl and precious stones, in return for 
some wares sent into those countries, which they got fitted out 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 49 

the palace of our liberty ; the sure defenders of the 
oppressed: they, who formerly could bridle kings, 
and keep the balance equal between them and the 

at Amsterdam, and then sold them at very dear rates in those 
places from whence they were first brought, and where there is 
not perfection of workmanship as there is with us. Hundreds 
of ships richly laden will daily put into the Thames and other 
ports of this fortunate island ; and the General can scarce ever 
lose sight of his forces, which, I may say, return every evening 
to lye at home ; for they stay no longer in foreign parts than to 
refresh themselves, to vend their goods, and to take in new car- 
goes. They will be no ways solicitous of making conquests by- 
land, that they may save the charge of maintaining them, 
seeing they are sure of reaping the profit of them ; neither 
will they plant any colonies and ease their country, as popu- 
lous as it is grown, of the vast multitudes that are in it, because 
the whole produce of Europe is consumed there, and their 
great naval trade renders their stores inexhaustible. In the 
mean time all the neighbouring kingdoms will, in a manner 
become like the sea coasts of America, where our Europeans 
trade ; there will be only tillage and some coarse manufactures 
for plain wear and to serve people's necessities only in the 
heart of the country, and the maritime towns will be no other 

than the granaries of England 

There is nothing in all the conquests of Alexander, and the 
pomp of the Roman Empire, that comes near this maritime 
dominion which I have represented to you. And this seems 
to be so very feasible, that if Holland be once ruined, I am afraid 
it will be too late to prevent it. And therefore I would have 
all the potentates of Europe take it to heart in time ; for if 
they do not quickly put an end to the war they are engaged in 
on the continent, we shall run the risque, in a few ages, of be- 
coming perfect barbarians. For the English, by the means of 
their navigation, will transfer all the politeness of Europe, to- 

VOL. I. G 



50 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OP 

people, are now become instruments of all our op- 
pressions, and a sword in his hand to destroy us ; 
they themselves led by a few interested persons, who 

gether with its plenty, power and conveniences of life, into 

their own country. 

Extract of a letter from M. Sorbiere to M. de Courcelles, 
at Amsterdam; dated Orange, July 1, 1652 : Concern- 
ing the designs of the English in the war against the 
Dutch. 

We have done this right unto our monarchy. 

We are now to say something of that government which 
succeeded it. I confess it was never settled, nor put absolutely 
into the hands of the people. And yet if you respect its infan- 
cy and beginning, it outwent in warlike atchievements all other 
commonwealths. I lay before me the exploits of Sparta, 
Athens, Carthage, and Venice ; and know that the Venetians, 
Switzers, and United Provinces, at this day being contemptible 
for territories, are those only that appear fittest matches for the 
greatest empires, namely the Turk, the German, and the Spa- 
nish house of Austria, which monarchs had overborn large 
kingdoms, and provinces, and could meet none able to measure 
swords with them, till these little countries, having vindicated 
their liberty, took them in hand, and not so much by their 
valour (for Venice was never celebrated for valour, and the 
United Provinces had no extraordinary name for it) but by the 
excellency of their government and prudent carriage, have 
been able to force them to become peaceable and quiet neigh- 
bours, and keep themselves within narrower bounds than other- 
wise they would willingly have done. I know also, Rome, the 
only mistress of the world, was justly celebrated for large con- 
quests. And yet none of these states gave such starts, and 
made such acquests at their rise, as our English common- 
wealth, certainly so many advantages conduced to its greatness 
and increase ; and at its first appearing, so large were its pro- 
per territories, that it may well be affirmed, never was com* 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 51 

are willing to buy offices for themselves, by the mis- 
ery of the whole nation and the blood of the most 
worthy and eminent persons in it. Detestable bribes, 

monwealth, in that respect, laid on so large and strong a foun- 
dation as that then had : and if, in our conceits, we should give 
it an answerable growth, we could not assign it less than the 
whole globe at last for its portion. 

At first, if you will judge by the affections of the people, it 
had not the hundredth part of England itself, and was to go 
through difficulties that would have confounded any but a free 
state. But how quickly had it brought the nation to somewhat 
a better understanding, and a fair way of settlement ? So that 
there are some that question, whether any natural prince of 
England had ever been assisted on any occasion with so great 
forces, so suddenly and with such alacrity raised, as that was 
at Worcester ? And on the other side, how few went over to 
the king of the Scots, though looked on as a rightful prince, 
deserves consideration. 

It lived not out a lustre, yet conquered Scotland, (introducing, 
more liberty and greater privileges than they had before) Ire- 
land and several other smaller islands ; made other nations 
feel its force, as the French and Portugal ; and was going on 
in such a career of action as was not to be stopt by a human 
power. This government began a war with the Dutch, which 
it had ended with an absolute conquest or fallen in the attempt ; 
and after this probably it would have entered on more honour- 
able enterprizes, and not suffered the nation to grow effeminate 
by ease and vice. In a word, it had brought in an instant the 
nation to a full glory and such a splendour, as cast a darkness, 
as is affirmed by some, on the greatest actions of former times. 
This is certain, that the neighbouring States trembled at its 
sudden and prodigious greatness ; and remote potentates did 
court and seek a good understanding from its hands, and its dis- 
solution brought no ordinary content to those that had cause to 
fear it. The agent from the Stuarts, as a late writer reports, 
at the first appearance of this free state, urged the United Pro^ 



52 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

worse than the oaths now in fashion in this merce- 
nary court ! I mean to owe neither my life nor lib- 
erty, to any such means. When the innocence of 

vinces, " That if England were free, it would be formidable to 
them not onely by interrupting their fishing and all other 
maritime advantages, but by robbing them of traffick as they 
had done the Venetians ; and not onely so, but give law to all 
Christendom, by reason of the commodiousness of its harbours 
and multitudes of it ships." 

This commonwealth, how imperfect soever in itself, was yet 
too strong in all likely hood for any human power or strength 
to break. It was only capable of being ruined by God and itself. 
It was indeed quickly dissolved and gone ; yet had it this to 
boast of, that having all along attempted the boldest enter- 
prises, it met with no ill success in any of its great undertak- 
ings while it was in being. But 

Lsctis hunc numina rebus, 

Crescendi posuere modum 

Where is the stability of human glory ? Who now'will not be- 
lieve that the firmest, the most splendid, and most illustrious 
fabrick that is human, is capable of dissolution ? God, in whose 
hands all nations are but as clay in the hands of a potter, and to 
whom the strongest and proudest governments are as contemp- 
tible as the lowest and meanest, if not more, undertook this 
commonwealth, and laid it in the dust with those other glorious 
states of Rome, Athens, Sparta, Carthage. 
.......Valet ima summis 

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus 

Obscura promens 

I will make no apology for what I have delivered of this go- 
vernment ; for, as I think, I have spoken the truth and that 
moderately, having rejected much matter that offered itself to 
my hands on this occasion. I never received any particular 
advantage by that government, nor so much as subscribed the 
engagement ; and therefore I thought I might with the greater 
freedom and ingenuity say thus much of it, which yet I submit 
to better judgments. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 53 

my actions will protect me, I will stay away till the 
storm be overpassed. In short, * where Vane, Lam- 
bert, Haselrigge cannot live in safety, I cannot live 

It remains now, that I should speak something of the present 
government ; but the petition of advice coming out since I had 
finished this discourse, I am forced to put it off till I shall have 
another opportunity, which, if ever it happen, I shall, God as- 
sisting, cheerfully set on it and in a particular manner discourse 
thereof. 

A discourse on the national excellencies of England. 
By R. H. London printed, 1658, in duod. 

I shall conclude with two material passages, which though 
they relate not immediately to our author, or his own particular 
concerns, yet in regard they happened during his public employ, 
and consequently fell most especially under his cognisance, it 
will not be amiss here to subjoin. 

The first was this. Before the war broke forth between the 
states of England and the Dutch, the Hollanders sent over three 
embassadours in order to an accommodation ; but they return- 
ing re infecta, the Dutch sent away a plenipotentiary to offer 
peace upon much milder terms, or at least to gain more time. 

But this plenipotentiary could not make such haste, but that 
the Parliament had procured a copy of their instructions in Hol- 
land, which were delivered by our author to his kinsman that 
was with him to translate for the council to view, before the said 
plenipotentiary had taken shipping for England ; and an answer 
to all he had in charge lay ready for him before he made his pub- 
lic entry into London. 

In the next place there came a person with a very sumptuous 
train, pretending himself an agent from the Prince of Conde, 
then in arms against Cardinal Mazarin. The Parliament mis- 
trusting him, set their instrument so busily at work, that in 
four or five days they had procured intelligence from Paris, 

* Mte*..iSeefi4ge 60. 



t 



54 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

at all. If I had been in England, I should have ex- 
pected a lodging with them ; or though the) r may be 
the first, as being more eminent than I, I must ex- 

that he was a spy from King Charles ; whereupon, the very next 
morning, our author's kinsman was sent to him with an order 
of councel, commanding him to depart the kingdom within 
three days or expect the punishment of a spy. 

By these two remarkable passages we may clearly discern 
the industry and good intelligence of those times. 

The life of John Milton, (by John Philips his nephew) 
prefixed to his letters of state.... Printed, 1694, in duod. 

At a committee of the councell of state at Whitehall, Aug. 
16, 1649. Ordered, that a committee bee appointed, to take 
into consideration the businesse of the coyne and the par be- 
twcene it and other nations ; and how the coyne of this nation 
may bee kept from being carried out ; and likewise to consider 
of some meanes whereby the mint may be set to worke ; and 
they are to speak with any persons they think good about it. 

The names of the committee for the mint, Dec. 20, 1649: 
The Lord President Bradshaw, Sir James Harrington, (who 
had the chair), Sir Gilbert Pickering, Sir William Constable, 
Master Scot, Master Bond, Colonel Purefoy, Colonel Jones, 
Master Thomas Chaloner, Sir Henry Mildmay, Colonel Mor- 
ley, Master Allen, Master Cornelius Holland, Master Neville ; 
or any two of them. 

The council of state being willing to prevent the said dis- 
orders, were desirous of having the monie of this common- 
wealth well coyned ; and therefore having seen the patterns 
of coyn made after a new invention (the screw press and mill) 
by the said Blondeau, and having treated by letters about the 
quantity of pieces that could be coyned in a week, and what they 
might cost ; the said council caused the said Blondeau, the in- 
ventor of that way of coyning, to come (from France) to Lon- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 55 

pect to follow their example in suffering as I have 
been their companion in acting. I am most in a 
maze' at the mistaken informations, that were sent to 

don, to treat with him by word of mouth, and to agree about 
the price of coyning the money of this commonwealth after his 
way. He being then arrived at London, Sept. 3, 1649, the said 
council bestowed on him forty pounds sterling ; and the late 
Mr. Frost, then secretary to the said council, told him before 
witnesses, that if the state could not agree with him about the 
price and that therefore he should be necessitated to retire him- 
self, the state w^ould indemnifie him for his journie, both com- 
ing and returning, and for the time he should have lost, and 
would bestow on him such a present that he would return satis- 
fied. A while after the said council of state ordered the com- 
mittee of the council of state for the mint, to hear the said 
Blondeau's proposition and report it. 

The committee for the mint accordingly took it into consi- 
deration, whether the said Blondeau should be admitted to coyn 
the monie of this commonwealth ; and having debated it, they 
resolved and approved that he should be admitted thereunto, 
provided his coin and his proposition should be advantageous 
to the state. 

Afterwards the said committee having seriously considered 
and examined all the circumstances of the way of coyning pro- 
pounded by the said Blondeau ; and having heard all the ob- 
jections that could be alledged against it, both by the master of 
the mint, or by any other of those who appeared in the busi- 
ness ; upon the debate of the whole, the committee concluded 
and voted, that the said way of coyning propounded by the said 
Blondeau, was better, more advantageous, and more honour- 
able for the state, than that which is used now in this com- 
monwealth. 

The master, the officers, and the workmen of the mint, told 
the committee, it was not likely the said Blondeau had done 
himself the pieces sent by him to the council of state. Besides, 
that it was an old invention which thev themselves knew, and 



56 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

me by my friends, full of expectation of favours and 
employments. Who can think that they who im- 
prison them would employ me, or suffer me to live 

that such pieces were onely made for curiosity, with very long 
time and great expence, and that it was impossible that that 
way might bee used about the ordinary coyn, which is thin. 
They desired that the said Blondeau might be commanded to 
make a tryal of his skill, by making some other pieces, and that 
they would do as much as the said Blondeau. Therefore the 
said committee ordered, both the said Blondeau and the said 
workmen, to make their patterns and propositions respectively ; 
and that hee that would make it with most advantage to the 
state should have the employment. 

At the time appointed, the workmen brought to the commit- 
tee some pieces made after the old way which is known to them, 
and some big pieces of silver stuffed within with copper ; but 
they had drawn no propositions. 

Likewise the said Blondeau brought in about 500 pieces, some 
half-crowns of theo rdinary weight and bigness, some shillings, 
six-pences, and some gold pieces, and presented his proposition ; 
which having been reformed according to the pleasure of the 
said committee, it was received and accepted of by the whole 
committee, who ordered it to be reported to the council of state, 
according to the order of the said council. 

The said committee having then taken into consideration the 
big pieces of silver at the outside and stuffed within with cop- 
per, made with the engines at the tower ; and well understood, 
that the said pieces, becaus they are made of several pieces at 
the top one of another, will give no sound, so that ablinde man 
can easily discern that they are false ; and having weighed the 
long time and great cost required for coyning of each piece, 
because they are made of four pieces, namely, one of copper 
and one of silver at the top, and another underneath and one 
about, which ought to be adjusted and sodered together, besides 
several other fashions, which cost more than the price of the 
{awful pieces ; having also considered the great and heavie 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 57 

when they are put to death? If I might live and be 
employed, can it be expected that I should serve a 
government that seeks such detestable ways of estab- 

engines and great number of tools and men required for making 
of one piece, the great charges for the engines and tools, and 
several other things required for making of those counterfeited 
pieces ; they acknowledged, that it would be enough to dis- 
swade any one from undertaking it, the rich not being willing, 
and the poor being unable, and that though they should under- 
take it they could not do it without being discovered. Besides 
that the mony coyned after the way of the said Blondeau was 
so thin that it cannot be so counterfeited. 

Whereupon it is observable, that the said workmen of the 
mint, although they made use of the great and heavie engines 
that are in the tower ; yet for making of some tools they had 
need of, and for the other charges of coining about a dozen of 
pieces they made then for a pattern, have spent a hundred 
pound sterling, as hee that pretends to have laid out the money 
hath said before witnesses. 

Afterwards, another order was given by the said committee, 
and some time limited to the said workmen, to draw and pre- 
sent their proposition for coyning the monie marked upon the 
thickness or edge, as that of the said Blondeau is. But after 
the expiration of the long time demanded by them, they brought 
such a proposition, the said committee having read it over and 
over, could not understand it nor the sense of it ; and even those 
that brought it could not explain it: whereby it was apparent 
to the said committee, that they were not able to make their 
proposition good, much less to coyn the mony after that way, 
which they avowed themselves before the said committee.... 
Yet they intreated the committee to allow them the time of some 
months more, to finde, if possible, the new invention ; and that 
the said Blondeau's proposition should be communicated unto 
them, upon which they might frame their own. They further 
demanded, that the said Blondeau and tbt graver (Thomas 

VOL. I. II 



58 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

lishing itself? Ah! no; I have not learnt to make 
my own peace, by persecuting and betraying my 
brethren, more innocent and worthy than myself. I 

Simon, the celebrated T. Simon) should have order to bring in 
all the pieces made by the said Blondeau for a tryal, with the 
stamps or dices used for making them ; all which was granted 
them upon that condition, that if within the time allowed them, 
they coulde finde out the means to coyn the monie after the 
said Blondeau's way, and thereupon he should be sent back, he 
should be indemnified: which was agreed by all. But they 
coulde never finde out the said new invention for coyning the 
thin and weak pieces after that way with expedition requisite. 
Yet for all that, they made their propositions, which are in the 
hands of the chairman of the committee ; as are also the said 
Blondeau's propositions and patterns, about a year and a half 
since, to be reported by him to the Council of State, etc. etc. 
A most humble memorandum from Peter Blondeau. Con- 
cerning the oilers by him made to this commonwealth, 
for the coyning of monie, by a new invention not yet 
practised in any state of the world ; the which will pre- 
vent counterfeiting, casting, washing and clipping the 
same. Which coin shall be marked on both the flat 
sides and about the thickness or the edge, of a like big- 
ness and largeness as the ordinarie coyn is ; and will cost 
no more than the ordinarie unequal coyn which is used 
now. 

Whitehall, June 14, 1651. 
Master David Ramadge, 
These are to authorise you, to make some patterns as broad 
as a shilling, a half crown, a twenty shilling piece of gold, in a 
mill ; and if you can do it, with letters about the edges, or 
otherwayes, according to Queen Elizabeth's patterns of mill- 
money or any other modells or pieces you are to make ; that 
so the committee of the mint may see your several pieces, and 
thereupon consider what is fittest to present to the council of 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 59 

live by just means, and serve to just ends, or not at 
all. After such a manifestation of the ways by 
which it is intended the King shall govern, I should 

state, for the more handsome making of the monies for the 
honor of this commonwealth. 

JAMES HARRINGTON*. 
THO. CHALONER. 

At the desire of Sir James Harrington, Mr. Thomas Chalo- 
ner, and others of the honourable committee for the mint, I 
(Thomas Violet) did write to Holland for all the principal 
coynes in Christendom ; and did deliver many of them to the 
officers of the mint to make an assay of them : which several 
pieces of forrain gold and silver were assayed in the presence of 
the committee of the mint, they being there at the tower seve- 
ral dayes to make these tryals, where I attended them. And 
I sent into Holland, France and Flanders fer all their several 
placarts \ and did procure the lawes and ordinances for regulat- 
ing their respective mints, with the several standards and 
weights for their coyns, gold or silver, to be translated. And 
thereupon the committee of the mint caused the principal of 
these forrain. coynes to be ingraven, with the weight and fine- 
ness of every piece, according to the standard of each mint, both 
gold and silver, what it ought to weigh ; with a just calculation 
of the value what all, the several species would make in the 
tower of London, and the penny-weight and graines that everie 
such forrain species or coin would make in the tower of Lon- 
don, and what proportion our gold and silver held with the 
mint of Flanders, France and Holland. And this was exactly 
calculated by the officers of the mint and myself, in the year 
1651 and 1.652 ; and all the proceedings thereupon, after many 
months time, and the several coynes graven on copper plates, 
was delivered into the custody of Sir James Flarrington, chair- 
man of that committee, to report them unto the house. But 
the Parliament being dissolved April 20, 1653, the act against 
the transporters of gold, and all the proceedings concerning the 
regulation of the mint were stopped for that time. 



60 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

have renounced any place of favour, into which the 
kindness and industry of my friends might have ad- 
vanced me, when I found those, that were better than 

The above notes relating to the coin, have been taken from 
Thomas Violet's publications. More of this matter, with spe- 
cimens of some of the elegant and very scarce pattern-pieces 
before mentioned, may be seen in " the works of Thomas 
Simon," published, London, 1753, in quarto, by that ingenious, 
diligent, faithful English antiquarie, the late Mr. George 
Vcrtue. 

Cromwell having thrust out the Parliament, his masters, pat- 
Tons,by his soldiers, as see a singular account of it in Whitelocke, 
p. 554 ; he thought proper, in the suite of his ambition, to coin 
monies, following exactly the rules which had been instituted 
by the committee of Parliament in their wisdom, and employ- 
ing the workmen which they had formed, but stamping on those 
monies impudently his own effigies and arms. 

Further, concerning the intended regulation of the law, the 
universities, commerce, and the general scheme of civil gov- 
ernment and views of this Master Parliament ; the curious 
reader will consult "Husband's collections," 1643, in quarto, 
1646, in folio; " Scobell's collections," in folio, and the other 
state papers of those times. 

(* Where Vane, Lambert, Ha&elrigge cannot live in safety,) 
Aug. 21, 1660, the act of indemnity was sent from the lords 
to the commons with several alterations, to which the com- 
mons were very unwilling to agree ; for they had subjected 
twenty that were not the king's judges to be liable to such pains 
and penalties, not extending to life, as should be inflicted by 
another act to be passed in this Parliament : whereas the lords, 
finding the king's inclinations to tend towards the pardoning of 
all but such as were his father's judges or otherwise actors in 
his murder, they disagreed to that part of the act as to all those 
named by the commons, except Sir Arthur Haselrigge, Sir 
Henry Vane ? Colonel John Lambert, who were esteemed to be 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 61 

I, were only fit to be destroyed. I had formerly 
some jealousies; the fraudulent proclamation for in- 
demnity increased them; the imprisoning of those 

so maliciously active in opposition to his majesty's government, 
as to be excepted from any conditions of pardon. The commons 
for some time adhered to their first resolution, but after several 
conferences, they agreed with the lords in all things except some 
little alterations in the frame of the 'act ; Vane and Lambert 
were excepted, but Haselrigge remained liable to such pains, 
penalties and forfeitures, as should be inflicted on him, not ex- 
tending to life ; and the rest of those put under the same quali- 
fications by the commons, that were not of the king's judges, 
were made only with others incapable of offices. 

Kennet's hist, register, p. 236. 

Sir Henry Vane, whose blood seems to have been demanded 
by the peculiar vengeance of heaven, had been most deeply en- 
gaged in the darkest scenes of the late calamities, which he car- 
ried on with infinite subtlety and artifice, to the deception of in- 
credible numbers in the nation ; and though he cunningly kept 
himself from the impious court that condemned the king, it was 
sufficiently known that none contributed more to the bringing 
him thither ; and after, that none more zealously promoted the 
establishment of the new commonwealth, and his actions daily 
discovered so much of republican rancour, that it was impossible 
for him to live in quiet under any resemblance of monarchy. So 
after the restoration, having been found tampering with some 
malecontents of the army and others, in order to fresh disturb- 
ances, the government thought fit to confine him : and though 
he, with Lambert, was particularly excepted in the act of indem- 
nity, yet he found so much favour afterwards from the House of 
Commons in the same Parliament, that they petitioned the king, 
in which they were joined by the House of Peers, that he might 
yet be exempt from suffering the pains of death ; to which, as 
his friends alledge, his majesty consented. This was looked 
upon as a sufficient security ; yet either upon the account of his 



62 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

three men, and turning out of all the officers of the 
army, contrary to promise, confirmed me in my re- 
solutions not to return. To conclude, the tide is 

own behaviour or that of his party, or some private resentment, 
the present House of Commons thought fit to address the king 
to bring him, together with Colonel John Lambert, to their 
tryals. Accordingly, June 4, 1662, they were both arraigned at 
the king's bench bar, before Sir Robert Forster, lord chief jus- 
tice, and other judges ; and Sir Henry indicted for imagining 
and compassing the death of the king, and for taking upon him 
and usurping the government : and Colonel Lambert for levy- 
ing war against the king in several parts of the kingdom. The 
carriage and behaviour of Vane was very extraordinary ; for, 
being charged by the king's council with a continued series of 
treasons, from the king's murder to the restoration, without in- 
sisting upon the rebellion with which they might have begun, 
he absolutely denied that they had any power to try him, and 
declared, " that neither the king's death, nor the members 
themselves could dissolve the Long Parliament, whereof he be- 
ing one, no inferior court could call him in question His 

whole behaviour was so assuming and insolent, that the court and 
king's council told him, that his own defence was a fresh charge 
against him and the highest evidence of his inward guilt, had 
there not been such a cloud of witnesses to prove the particu- 
lars The jury after a very short stay brought him in guilty 

of high treason. Colonel Lambert's behaviour was quite con- 
trary, full of submission and discretion He was likewise 

condemned ; but when he was to receive sentence with Sir 
Henry Vane, he was by the king's favor reprieved at the bar, 
upon the report that the judges had given of his submissive 
and handsome deportment at his tryal ; upon which he desired 
the judges to return to his majesty his most humble thanks, for 
his so unexpected mercy, which the judges said might have 
been, and was once thought to be extended to Sir Henry, if his 
forwardness and contemptuous behaviour had not precluded the 
way to it. The Colonel was confined during life in the Isle of 



ALGERNON' SYDNEY. 65 

not to be diverted nor the oppressed delivered ; but 
God, in his time, will have mercy on his people. He 
will save and defend them, and avenge the blood of 

Guernsey, where he continued a patient and discreet prisoner 
for above thirty years. 

Archdeacon Echard and Bishop Kennet ; as see the 
hist, register, p. 704, .5. 

And since it hath pleased God, who separated me from the 
womb to the knowledge and service of the gospel of his Son, 
to separate me also to this hard and difficult service at this time, 
and to single me out to the defence and justification of this his 
cause, I could not consent by any words or actions of mine, that 
the innocent blood that hath been shed in the defence of it 
throughout the whole war, the guilt and moral evil of which 
must and does certainly lye somewhere, did lye at my door, or 
at theirs, that have been the faithful adherers to this cause. 
This is with such evidence upon my heart, that I am most 
freely and cheerfully willing to put the greatest seal to it I am 
capable, which is, the pouring out of my very blood in witness 
to it ; which is all I shall need to say in this place and at this 
time, having spoken at large to it in my defence at my tryal, 
intending to have said more the last day, as what I thought was 
reasonable for arrest of judgment, but I was not permitted then 
to speak it ; both which may, with time and God's providence, 
come to public view. And I must still assert, that I remain 
wholly unsatisfied, that the course of proceedings against me 
at my tryal were according to law ; but that I was run upon, 
and destroyed, contrary to right and the liberties of Magna 
Charta.) under the form only of justice, which I leave to God to 
decide, who is the judge of the whole world, and to clear my 
innocency. In the mean time I beseech him to forgive them 
and all that had any hand in my death ; and that the Lord, in 
his great mercy, will not lay it unto their charge, etc. 

The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, knt. at the king's bench, 
Westminster, June 2, and 6, 1662,, together with what 



64 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

those who shall now perish, upon the heads of those, 
who, in their pride, think nothing is able to oppose 
them. Happy are those, whom God shall make in- 

he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence, 
June li, for arrest of judgment, had he not been inter- 
rupted and over-ruled by the court, and his bill of ex- 
ceptions. With other occasional speeches, etc. Also 
his speech and prayer, etc. on the scaffold. Printed 
in the year 1662, in quarto, p. 90. 

Sonnet to Sir Henry Vane. 
Vane, young in years, but in sage councils old, 
Than whom a better senator ne'er held 
The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repell'd 
The fierce Epirot, and the African bold, 
Whether to settle peace, or to unfold 
The drift of hollow states, hard to be spell'd ; 
Then to advise how war may best upheld, 
Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, 
In all her equipage : Resides to know 
Both spiritual and civil, what each means, 
What serves each, thou hast learn'd ; which few have done. 
The bounds of either sword to thee we owe ; 
Therefore on thy right hand religion leans 
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. 

JOHN MILTON. 

The cases cited by the learned judge (Hale) do not in the 
least shake the principle already advanced, that the throne being 
full, any person out of possession but claiming title, be his pre- 
tensions what you please, is no king within the statue of trea- 
sons. 

I am aware of the judgment of the court of king's bench in 
the case of Sir Henry Vane, " That king Charles the second, 
though kept out of the exercise of the kingly office, yet was still 
a king both de facto and de jure ; and that all acts done to the 
keeping him out were high treason. " 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 65 

struments of his justice in so blessed a work! If I 
can live to see that clay, I shall be ripe for the 
grave, and able to say with joy, " Lord, now lettest 

Sir Henry Vane's was a very singular case, and the transac- 
tions in which he bore a part, happened in a conjuncture of affairs 
which never did exist before, and I hope never will again : an 
usurpation founded in the dissolution of the ancient legal go- 
vernment, and the total subversion of the constitution. 

I will therefore say nothing to the merits of the question 
more, than that the rule laid down by the court, involved in the 
guilt of treason every man in the kingdom who had acted in a 
public station under a government possessed in fact for twelve 
years together of sovereign power ; but under various forms, at 
different times, as the enthusiasm of the herd or the ambition of 
their leaders dictated. 

But this resolution hath not in the least shaken the principle I 
contend for ; it doth in reality suppose the truth of it. For if 
Charles the second was king de facto from the death of his fa- 
ther, every thing done from that time in prejudice of his right 
was undoubtedly high treason. 

The only difficulty is, what did the court mean by a king de 
facto ? They could not mean, what every soul before themselves 
understood, a king in the actual and full exercise of the regal 
power. They meant, I presume, as his lordship upon another 
occasion is pleased to express himself, one quasi in possession of 
the crown ; since, during the usurpation, no other person did 
claim to act under the regal title. 

The distinction between de jure and de facto kings was taken 
up by the house of York, to serve the purpose of ambition and 
revenge. By the former, they meant those who are presumed 
to have succeeded to the crown in a regular course of descent. 
By the latter, those who have not had that claim to it. The 
former were in their estimation the only rightful kings. The 
latter, not excepting such as have claimed under a parliamentary 
settlement, no better than fortunate usurpers. 

VOL. I. I 



66 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

thou thy servant depart in peace." Farewell. My 
thoughts as to king and state depending upon their 
actions, no man shall be a more faithful servant to 

This doctrine perfectly suited the views of that faction. For 
the crown having been entailed by act of Parliament on Henry 
the Fourth and his issue, the house of York saw itself totally ex- 
cluded, unless its pretensions could be supported by a title para- 
mount to the power of Parliament. Proximity in blood was its 
only refuge, and to that the partizans of that house resorted. 
And in doing so, they brought upon themselves, in my opinion, 
the whole guilt of that deluge of blood which was afterwards 
spilt in the unnatural war between the two houses. 

It is not to be wondered at, that men whose ambition suggest- 
ed to them the hope of overturning an establishment, to which 
themselves, their ancestors, and the whole nation had submitted 
for more than half a century, should endeavour to convince 
mankind of the rectitude of their intentions, and the justice of 
their claim. Nor is it at all surprizing, that their followers, in 
the heat of the times, should suffer themselves to be so easily 
convinced. For in the ferment of parties, leaders never blush, 
and the herd of the party seldom think. But, that persons who 
are placed at a happy distance from these disastrous times, 
should in cool blood revive and adopt a doctrine, which hath 
once laid their country waste, is not so easily accounted for. 

But since this hath been done by learned men, among whom 
lord chief justice Hale's name must be mentioned with all just 
regard, I will endeavour to point out what I take to have been 
the radical mistake, which led them into a train of specious but 
false reasoning upon this subject. 

They seem not to have sufficiently attended to the nature and 
ends of civil powers, whereof the regal dignity is a principal 
branch. They seem to have considered the crown and royal 
dignity merely as a descendable property ; as an estate or inter- 
est vested in the possessor for the emolument and grandeur of 
himself and heirs, in a regular invariable course of descent : and 
therefore, in questions touching the succession, they constantly 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 67 

him than I, * if he make the good and prosperity of 
his people his glory; none more his enemy, if he 
doth the contrary. To my particular friends I shall 

resort to the same narrow rules and maxims of law and justice, 
by which questions of mere property, the title to a pigstye or a 
laystall, are governed. And thence conclude, that the legisla- 
ture itself cannot, without manifest injustice, interrupt the an- 
cient, legal, established order of succession. It cannot, say they, 
without injustice, give to one branch of the royal family, what by 
right of blood belongeth to another. 

Thus they argue. And if I could conceive of the crown as 
of an inheritance of mere property, I should be tempted to 
argue in the same manner. But had they considered the crown 
and royal dignity, as a descendable office, as a trust for millions, 
and extending its influence to generations yet unborn ; had 
they considered it in that light, they would soon have discover- 
ed the principle upon which the right of the legislature to in- 
terpose in cases of necessity is manifestly founded. And that 
is the salvs /wfivll already mentioned (p. 382) upon a like occa- 
sion, etc. etc. etc. which the ingenious reader should peruse. 
Observations on some passages in the writings of L. C. J, 
Hale ; relative to the principles on which the revolution 
and present happy establishment are founded. By (that 
faithful judge and friend to liberty) Sir Michael Foster. 

There is an original and good picture of this extraordinary 
but unfortunate gentleman, Sir Henry Vane, in the British 
Museum. 

(* If he make the good and jirosfierity of his fieo/ile his glory ;) 
Of a tall stature and of sable hue 
Much like the son of Kish, that lofty Jew ; 
Twelve years compleat he suffer'd in exile, 
And kept his father's asses all the while. 
At length by wonderful impulse of fate, 
The people call him home to mend the state ; 



68 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

be constant on all occasions, and to you a most affec- 
tionate servant." 

And, what is more, they send him money too, 

And clothe him all, from head to foot, anew. 

Nor did he such small favours then disdain, 

Who in his thirtieth year began his reign. 

In a slash'd doublet then he came ashore, 

And dubb'd poor Palmer's wife his royal whore. 

Bishops, and Deans, Peers, Pimps, and Knights he made, 

Things highly fitting for a Monarch's trade ! 

With women, wine, and viands of delight, 

His jolly vassals feast him day and night. 

Etc. etc. etc. 

An historical poem by A. Marvell. 

D'ou les Anglois remontant au souvenir de la puissance 

de leurs fiottes du temps d 'Olivier ; de la gloire qu'elles ont 
remportues sur toutes les mers ; les alliances, que toute la terre 
recherchoit avec eux ; de la pompe de la Republique, vers 
laquelle il venoit des ambassadeurs de tous caustez : ils ne 
peuvent s'empescher de faire des comparaisons odieuses, et de 
temoigner quelque disposition a des nouveaux desordres. Ils 
veulent bien un roi pour la gloire de leur pays. Ils aiment ce 
tiltre, et preferent cette sorte de gouvernement a toutes les 
autres. Mais ils reconnoissent, que leur humeur un peu trop 
libre et arrogante a besoin de ce caveCon ; ils ne veulent point 
aussi le souffrir trop rude, et ils pretendent que leur Roi se doit 
appiiquer uniquement a maintenir la tranquilite publique, a 
faire vivre heureusement son peuple, et a porter au dehors le 
plus avant qu'il peut l'honneur et la reputation de sa patrie. 
Ils disent que c'est pour cela qu'ils l'entretiennent splendide- 
ment, et leurs Estats, dans lesquelles proprement reside la 
puissance Souveraine, ne lui refuseront jamais rein de ce qu'il 
leur demandera pour satisfaire a ses intentions. Mais qu'il 
leur fache de voir commettre un chose si importante au soins 
d'un Ministre, qui toujours a des interests particuliers, con- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 69 

After he had continued some time in Italy, he 
thought proper to draw nearer home, that if an oppor- 
tunity should offer, "he might not," as General f 

traires a ceux du public ; qu'il est sensible an peuple de se 
saigner inutilement, et de voir employer son argent en choses 
superflues, ou mesme en despences des-honnetes ; (rendered 
in the translation of 1709, " upon base lusts ;") qu'il ne'st pas 
juste que quelques sang sues de cour en soient remplies elles 
seules, et que Ton ne navige ou ne laboure, qu'on ne travaille 
sur mer et sur terre, que pour mettre bien e leur aise un petit 
nombre de personnes oisives, qui abuseront de la facilite d'un 
prince. Ces pensees et ces discours sont conformes a l'hum- 
eur arrogante des Anglois, et a la jalousie avec laquelle ils re- 
gardent les prosperitez d'autruy. Mais outre la particuliere 
inclination que la nature leur donne a former des raisonnemens 
si peu respectueux, ils se sont nouris de longue main dans cette 
mauvoise habitude par la liberte de leurs Parlemens, d'ont il 
faut que Je vous raconte l'histoire, telle qu'il mc'n souvient ou 
que Je me la suis figuree, etc. etc. etc. 

" Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre." By Mons. 
Sorbiere. Printed at Cologne, 1666, in duod. p. 107. 

It was hoped and expected, that this prodigious and univer- 
sal calamity, (the fire of London) for the effects of it covered 
the whole kingdom, would have made some impression and 
produced some reformation in the licence of the court. For as 
the pains the king had taken night and day during the fire, and 
the dangers he had exposed himself to, even for the saving of 
the citizens' goods, had been notorious and in the mouths of 
all men, with many good wishes and prayers for him, so his ma- 
jesty had been heard during that time to speak with great piety 
and devotion of the displeasure that God was provoked to. 
And no doubt the deep sense of it did raise many good thoughts 
and purposes in his royal breast. But he was narrowly watched 

t Memoirs, p. 384, folio edit. 



7© LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

Ludlow observes, "be wanting to his duty and the 
public service." In his way he visited that General 
and his friends, in their retirement in Switzerland ; 

and looked to, that such melancholic thoughts might not long 
possess him, the consequence and effect whereof was like to be 
more grievous than that of the fire itself; of which, that loose 
company that was too much cherished, even before it was ex- 
tinguished, discoursed as of an argument for mirth and wit to 
describe the wildness of the confusion all people were in ; in 
which the scripture itself was used with equal liberty, when 
they could apply it to their profane purposes. And Mr. May 
presumed to assure the king, " that this was the greatest bles- 
sing, that God had ever conferred upon him, his restoration 
only excepted : for the walls and gates being now burned and 
thrown down of that rebellious city, which was always an ene- 
my to the crown, his majesty would never suffer them to re- 
pair and build them up again, to be a bit in his mouth and a 
bridle upon his neck ; but would keep all open, that his troops 
might enter upon them whenever he thought necessary for his 
service ; there being no other way to govern that rude multitude 
but by force." 

The continuation of the life of Edward Earl of Claren- 
don, vol. 3. p. 674 See other passages of a like 

kind in that work. (Midhurst Baptist May, Esq. 
privy purse, 10001. a year allowance. Got besides, in 
boons for secret service, 40,0001. This is he that sayd, 
" Five hundred pounds a year was enough for a coun- 
try gentleman to drink ale, eat beef, and stink with," 
etc. A seasonable argument, etc.) 

Such unanimity appeared in the proceedings of the new Par- 
liament, or convention as it came afterwards to be called, be- 
cause it was not summoned by the king's writ, that there was 
not the least dispute among them but upon one single point ; 
yet that was a very important one. Hale, afterwards the fa- 
mous chief justice, moved, " That a committee might be ap- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 71 

assuring them of his affection and friendship, and no 
way declining to own them and the cause for which 
they suffered. He staid with them about three 



pointed to look into the propositions that had been made, and 
the concessions that had been offered by the late king, during 
the war, particularly at the treaty of Newport, that from thence 
they might digest such propositions as they should think fit to 
be sent over to the king." This was seconded, but I do not 
remember (pity it is that he did not !) by whom. It was fore- 
seen that such a motion might be set on foot, so Monk was in- 
structed how to answer it, whensoever it should be proposed. 
He told the house, that there was yet, beyond all men's hope, 
an universal quiet all over the nation ; but there were many 
incendiaries still on the watch, trying where they could first 
raise the flame. He said he had such copious informations 
sent him of these things, that it was not fit they should be 
generally known : he could not answer for the peace either of 
the nation or of the army, if any delay was put to the sending 
for the king ; what need was there of sending propositions to 
him ? Might they not as well prepare them and offer them to 
him when he should come over ? He was to bring neither army 
nor treasure with him, either to fright them or corrupt them. 
So he moved, that they would immediately send commissioners 
to bring over the king : and said, that he must lay the blame 
of all the blood or mischief that might follow, on the heads of 
those who should insist on any motion that might delay the pre- 
sent settlement of the nation. This was echoed with such a, 
shout over the house, that the motion was no more insisted on. 
This was indeed the great service that Monk did. It was 
chiefly owing to the post he was in and to the credit he had 
gained ; for as to the restoration itself, the tide run so strong,, 
that he only went into it dexterously enough to get much fame- 
and great rewards, for that which will have still a great appear- 
ance in history. If he had died soon after, he might have been 
more justly admired, because less known and seen only in one 
advantageous light ; but he lived long enough to make it known. 



72 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

weeks ; and designing to go for Flanders, where he 
resolved to pass the ensuing winter, he took his 
journey by the way of Berne, * doing all the good 

how false a judgment men are apt to make upon outward ap- 
pearance. To the king's coining in without conditions may be 
well imputed all the errors of his reign. And when the Earl 
of Southampton came to see what he was likely to prove, he 
said once in great wrath to Chancellor Hide, " It was to him 
they owed all they either felt or feared ; for if he had not pos- 
sessed them in all his letters with such an opinion of the king, 
they would have taken care to have put it out of his power either 
to do himself or them any mischief which was like to be the 
effect of their trusting him so entirely." Hide answered, 
" That he thought the king had so true a judgment and so 
much good nature, that when the age of pleasure should be 
ovei •, and the idleness of his exile, which made him seek new 
diversions for want of other employment, was turned to an obli- 
gation to mind affairs, then he would have shaken off those 
entanglements." Burnet's hist, of his own times, vol. 1. p. 89. 

A colony of French possess the court ; 
Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy chamber sport. 
Such slimy monsters ne'er approached a throne 
Since Pharaoh's days, nor so defil'd a crown. 
In sacred ear tyrannic arts they croak, 
Pervert his mind, and good intention choak ; 
Tell him of golden Indies, fairy lands, 
Leviathan, and absolute commands. 

Britannia and Raleigh ; a poem by A. Marvell. 

The secret of the king and duke's being so eager and hearty 
in their resolutions to break with France at this juncture, (July 
1678) was as follows: 

France, in order to break the force of confederacy, and elude 
all just conditions of a general peace, resolved by any means to 

* JVote,...See page 78- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 73 

offices he could for General Ludlow and his friends, 
with the advoyer and other principal magistrates of 

enter into separate measures with Holland ; to which end it was 
absolutely necessary to engage the good offices of the king of 
England, who was looked upon to be master of the peace when- 
ever he pleased. The bargain was struck for three or four 
hundred thousand pounds. But when all was agreed, Monsieur 
Barillon, the French ambassador, told the king, " that he had 
orders from his master, before payment, to add a private article, 
by which his majesty should be engaged never to keep above 
eight thousand men of standing troops in his three kingdoms." 
This unexpected proposal put the king in a rage, and made him 
say, " — d's fish ! Does my brother of France think to serve me 
thus ? Are all his promises to make me absolute master of my 
■ come to this ? Or does he think that a thing to be done 

with eight thousand men ? 

Temple's works, vol. n. p. 464, in a note, edit. 1720. 

. By this means came in Charles the second, a luxurious 

effeminate prince, a deep dissembler, and if not a papist him- 
self, yet a great favourer of them : but the people had suffered 
so much from the army, that he was received with the utmost 
joy and transport. The Parliament, in the honey-moon, passed 
what laws he pleased, gave a vast revenue for life, being three 
times as much as any of his predecessors enjoyed, and several mil- 
lions besides to be spent in his pleasures. This made him conceive 
vaster hopes of arbitrary power than any that went before him, 
and in order to it he debauched and enervated the whole king- 
dom. His court was a scene of adulteries, drunkeness, and 
irreligion, appearing more like stews or the feasts of Bacchus, 
than the family of a chief magistrate. And in a little time the 
contagion spread through the whole nation, that it was out of 
the fashion not to be lewd, and scandalous not to be a public 
enemy," etc. etc. etc. 

" A short hist, of standing armies in England." By 
John Trenchard. London, 1698, in quarto.. 
VOL. I. K 



74 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

that city. He was at Brussels in the end of the year 
1663, whence he wrote to his father, with relation to 

Russel the painter, related to or connected with the 

Olivers, told Vertue a remarkable story. The greater part of 
the collection of King Charles being dispersed in the troubles, 
among which were several pictures of the Olivers, Charles II. 
who remembered and was desirous of recovering them, made 
many inquiries about them after the restoration. At last he 
was told by one Rogers of Isleworth, probably Progers, well 
known for being employed in the king's private pleasures, that 
both father and son were dead, but that the son's widow was 
living at Isleworth and had many of their works. The king went 
privately and unknown with Rogers to see them. The widow 
showed several finished and unfinished, with many of which the 
king being pleased, asked if she would sell them; she replied, 
she had a mind the king should see them first, and if he did 
not purchase them, she should think of disposing of them.... 
The king discovered himself; on which she produced some 
more pictures which she seldom showed. The king desired 
her to set a price ; she said she did not care to make a price 
with his majesty, she would leave it to him : but promised to 
look over her husband's books and let his majesty know what 
prices his father the late king had paid. The king took away 
what he liked, and sent Rogers to Mrs. Oliver with the option 
of a thousand pounds or an annuity of three hundred pounds 
for her life. She chose the latter. Some years afterwards, it 
happened, that the king's mistresses having begged all or most 
of these pictures, Mrs. Oliver, who probably was a prude, and 
apt to express herself like a prude, said, on hearing it, " that if 
she had thought the king would have given them to such 
whores and strumpets and bastards, he never should have had 
them." This reached the court; the poor woman's annuity 
was stopped and she never received it afterwards. 

Anecdotes of painting in England, with some account of 

the principal artists; etc. collected by the late Mr. 

George Vertue, and now digested and published by Mr. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 75 

transporting a body of the best officers and soldiers of 
the old army into the service of the Emperor. 

Horace Walpole. Strawberry-hill, printed 1762, from 
his owa press, (mark that ye nobles, gentry), in two 
vols, quarto, vol. 2. p. 14. 

One other extract from this author, to whom the public are 
variously obliged, cannot be improper in the Memoirs of A. 
Sydney. It is taken from the second volume of the above work, 
p. 147. 

" The whole fabric (the intended palace of Whitehall by 
Inigo Jones) was so glorious an idea, that one forgets for a mo- 
ment, in the regret for its not being executed, the confirmation 
of our liberties obtained by a melancholy scene that passed be- 
fore the windows of that very banqueting-house." 

Alfred was of person comlier than all his brethren, of pleasing 
tongue and graceful behaviour, ready wit and memory; yet 
through the fondness of his parents towards him, had not been 
taught to read till the twelfth year of his age ; but the great de- 
sire of learning which was in him, soon appeared, by his conning 
of Saxon poems day and night, which with great attention he 
heard by others repeated. He was besides, excellent at hunt- 
ing and the new art then of hawking, but more exemplary in 
devotion, having collected into a book certain prayers and 
psalms, which he carried ever with him in his bosome to use on 
all occasions. He thirsted after all liberal knowledge, and oft 
complained, that in his youth he had no teachers, in his middle 
age so little vacancy from wars and the cares of his kingdome; 
yet leisure he found sometimes, not only to learn much him- 
self, but to communicate thereof what he could to his people, 
by translating books out of Latin into English, Orosius, Boe- 
thius, Beda's history, and others ; permitting none unlern'd to 
bear office, either in court or commonwealth. At twenty years 
of age, not yet reigning, he took to wife Egelswitha, the 
daughter of Ethelred, a Mercian Earl. The extremities which 



76 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

In 1665, upon the breaking out of the war be- 
tween England and the United Provinces, ten per- 

befell him in the sixth of his reign, Neothan Abbot told him, were 
justly come upon him for neglecting in his younger days the 
complaints of such as injured and oppressed repaired to him, as 
then second person in the kingdom, for redress; which neglect, 
were it such indeed, were yet excusable in a youth, through jol- 
lity of mind unwilling perhaps to be detained long with sad and 
sorrowful narrations ; but from the time of his undertaking re- 
gal charge, no man more patient in hearing causes, more inqui- 
sitive in examining, more exact in doing justice, and providing 
good laws, which are yet extant ; more severe in punishing un- 
just judges or obstinate offenders. Theeves especially and 
robbers, to the terror of whom in cross waies were hung upon 
a high post certain chains of gold, as it were daring any one to 
take them thence ; so that justice seemed in his daies not to 
florish only but to tryumph. No man then hee more frugal of 
two pretious things in man's life, his time and his revenue ; no 
man wiser in the disposal of both. His time, the day and night. 
he distributed by the burning of certain tapours into three 
equal portions ; the one was for devotion, the other for public 
or private affairs, the third for bodily refreshment ; how each 
hour past, he was put in minde by one who had that office. His 
whole annual revenue, which his first care wa6 sould be justly 
his own, he divided into two equall parts. The first he imploi'd 
to secular uses, and subdivided those into three ; the first to 
pay his souldiers, household-servants and guard, of which 
divided into three bands one attended monthly by turn ; the se- 
cond was to pay his architects and workmen, whom he had got 
together of several nations, for he was also an elegant builder, 
above the custome and conceit of Englishmen in those days : the 
third he had in readiness to relieve or honor strangers according 
to their worth, who came from all parts to see him, and live 
under him. The other equal part of his yearly wealth he dedi- 
cated to religious uses, those of fowr sorts. The first to re- 
lieve the poor ; the second to the building and maintenance of 



ALGERNON" SYDNEY. 77 

sons were sent by King Charles II. to Augsburg in 
Germany f to assasinate Colonel Sydney ; and pro- 
bably might have effected their design, if he, having 

two monasteries ; the third of a school, where he had perswaded 
the sons of many noblemen to study sacred knowledge and liberal 
arts, some say at Oxford ; the fourth was for the relief of foreign 
churches as far as India to the shrine of St. Thomas, sending the- 
ther Sigclm, bishop of Sherburn, w T ho both returned safe and 
brought with him many rich gems and spices : guifts also and a 
letter he receaved from the patriarch of Jerusalem ; sent many to 
Rome, and from thence receaved reliques. Thus far, and much 
more might be said of his noble minde, which rendered him the 
miror of princes. His body was diseased in his youth with a 
great soreness in the seiege ; and that ceasing of itself, with another 
inward pain of unknown cause, which held him by frequent 
fits to his dying day ; yet not disinabled to sustain those many 
glorious labors of his life both in peace and war. 

The history of Britain, that part especially now called Eng- 
land, from the first traditional beginning to the Norman 
conquest. By John Milton. London, printed 1671, in 
quarto. 

The reader will forgive the following digression, if it be a 
digression, respecting good and bad ministers, which makes 
part of Milton's inimitable prayer, in his first prose tract, in- 
titled " Of Reformation," etc. London, printed 1 64 1, in quarto. 

" Then amidst the hymns and halleluiahs of saints, some one 
may perhaps bee heard offering at high strains in new and lofty 
measures, to sing and celebrate thy divine mercies and marvel- 
ous judgements in this land throughout ail ages ; whereby this 
great and warlike nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and 
continuall practice of truth and righteousnesse, and casting 
farre from her the rags of her old vices, may presse on hard to 
that high and happy emulation to be found the soberest, wisest, 
and most christian people, at that day when thou the eternal! 

t Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, p. 404, 



78 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

undertaken a journey to Holland, upon business re- 
lating to the public, had not removed from that city 
before their arrival. 

and shortly-expected king shall open the clouds to judge the 
severall kingdomes of the world, and distributing national hon- 
ors and rewards to religious and just commonwealths, shall put 
an end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming thy universal and 
milde monarchy through heaven and earth. Where they un- 
doubtedly, that by their labors, counsels and prayers, have 
been earnest for the common good of religion and their coun- 
trey, shall receive, above the inferior orders of the blessed, the 
regall addition of principalities, legions and thrones into their 
glorious titles ; and in super-eminence of beatific vision pro- 
gressing the datelesse and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall 
clasp inseparable hands with joy and blisse, in over measure for 
ever. But they contrary, that by the impairing and diminution 
of the true faith, the distresses and servitude of their country, 
aspire to high dignity, rule and promotion here, after a shame- 
full end in this life, which God grant them, shall be throwne 
downe eternally into the darkest and deepest gulfe of hell ; 
where under the despightfull contro ule, the trample and spurne 
of all the other damned, that in the anguish of their torture 
shall have no other ease then to exercise a raving and bestiall 
tyrranny over them as their slaves and negros, they shall re- 
maine in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the 
most dejected, most underfoot and downe trodden vassals of 
perdition." 

* Edmund Ludlow, knight of the shire for the county of 
Wilts, in the Parliament which began Nov. 3, 1640 ; one of the 
council of state ; lieutenant-general of horse and commander in 
chief of the forces in Ireland.. ..An honest man by the confes- 
sion of his enemies. His seat was Maiden Bradley, with a 
paternal estate, it is said, of upwards of 30001. a year belonging 
to it. During his retirement in Switzerland, he wrote his 
" Memoirs," and several curitus valuable tracts. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 79 

He continued abroad till the year 1677, when he 
procured leave to return to England; and obtained 
a particular pardon, * according to Bishop Sprat, 
"upon repeated promises of constant quiet and obe- 
dience for the future." Bishop Burnet affirms, that 
"he came back when the Parliament was pressing 
the king into a war. The court of France obtained 
leave for him to return. He did all he could to 
divert people from the war; so that f some took 

It may not be improper here, to give an extract of a letter 
from Philip, Lord Viscount Lisle, to his father Robert, Earl 
of Leicester, dated Nov. 6, 1649, taken from the Sydney state 
papers ; as it accounts, in part, for the kindness and attention 
shewn afterwards in Switzerland to the commonwealth party, 
which sheltered themselves there...." The Parliament's decla- 
ration made since the change of the government, hath been, 
as the council is informed, much approved of, in many parts 
of the Swisses countrey ; and the ministers there, do publicly 
give God thanks fop the establishment of the republic, and pray 
for it: upon which I believe an agent will shortly be sent 
thither." 

The declaration, the Latin edition of it, was printed Mar. 22, 
1648, in quarto, under this title, " Parliamenti Angliae de- 
claratio. In qua res nuperam gestae, et decretum de statu 
Angliae regio in liberam rempublicam vertendo, asseruntur." 
And the following order was placed before the title, " Die Sab- 
bathi, 17 Martii, 1648. Comitiis populi Parliamentary de- 
ternitur, hanc declarationem typis esse ilico mandandam. Hen. 
Scobell Cleric. Parliamenti." 

* Hist, of the Rye-house plot. 

f\ Some took him for a pensioner of France,) 
The following anecdote having been communicated to Dr. 
Hutcheson, of Glasgow, was frequently related by him to his 



SO lif£ and memoirs of 

him for a pensioner of France. But he said, our 
court was in an entire confidence in France, and had 
no other design in this shew of a war, but to raise an 
army and keep it beyond sea, till it was trained and 
modelled." But it is evident from a letter of his * 

friends, " That during Mr. Sydney's stay in France, one clay 
hunting with the French king, and being mounted on a fine 
English horse, whose form and spirit caught the king's eye, 
he received a message that he would please to oblige the king 
with his horse, at his own price. He answered that he did not 
chuse to part with him. The king determined to have no denial, 
and gave orders to tender him the money or to seize the horse ; 
which being made known to Mr. Sydney, he instantly took a 
pistol and shot him, saying, that his horse was born a free 
creature, had served a free man, and should not be mastered by 
a king of slaves." 

f * To Henry Savile, the English ambassador in France,) 
Mr. Savile is said to have replied to a Frenchman, who exult- 
ed upon the fine writings of his countrymen, that there were 
but two subjects in nature worth a wise man's thoughts, namely 
religion and government, and they durst speak of neither. 

The Independent Whig, numb. 1. 

The celebrated Mons. Voltaire, in his " Ode sur la mort dc 
Madame de Bareith, avee une lettre," etc. seems to have en- 
tertained nearly the same idea as Mr. Savile ; and fixes the su- 
periority of the English nation, where alone it centers, vpon 

ITS LIBERTY. 

" Les Italiens, ces peuples ingenieux, ont craint de penser j 
les Franc,ais n'ont ose penser qu'a demi, et les Anglais qui ont 
vole jusqu'au ciel, parce qv'on me levr a point covpe 
les ailes, sont devenus les precepteurs des nations. Nous 
leur devons tout, depuis les loix primitives de la gravitation, de- 
puls le calcul de l'infini et la connaissance precise de la lumiere 



ALGERNON SYDNEY* 81 

to Henry Savile, the English ambassador in France, 
that it was that gentleman who obtained leave for 
him to return* The letter is dated from Nerac, De- 
cember 28, 1682; but the year erroneously printed. 

si vainement combattues, jusqu'a la nouvelle charue, et a l'in- 
sertion de la petite verole, combattues encore." 

II Signor Martinelli, has a note also to the same effect in his 
elegant edition of the " Decamerone di Giouanne Boccacio." 

" La lingua Tuscana, puo dirsi il miracolo delle lingue si 
morte come viventi. Ella nacque, si puo dir, come rosa infra le 
spine della persecuzione ; perche Dante e it Petrarca le loro 
belle opere in esilio composero, c il Boccacio il suo Decamer- 
one termind, siccome nel proemio alia quarta giornata dichiara, 
saettato dalFinvidia e dalla callunnia. II Machiavelli fu mar- 
toriato dalla fazione dei Medici, per essersi ingegnato d'imyedif 
loro d'occupare la tirannide della sua patria. II Guicciardin 
si prese un volontario esilio in una sua villa, per non pedere 
spirare la liberta della Republica Fiorentina nelle mani di Cosimo 
primo, e quivi termino di scrivere la sua Istoria d'ltalia. Al 
Segni e al Varchi, proibirono i Granduchi di publicare le loro 
Istorie di Firenze. II Galileo, tra le persecuzioni con le quali 
tonvenne combattere, ebbe quella d'Impostore che si arrogarono 
le sue mirabili invenzioni, con le quali ha aperto ai mortali la 
^ia d'indagare l'indole e movimenti de' corpi celesti ; e final- 
mente 1' Aristo visse povero e Torquato Tasso morl poverissimo. 

Parlando dei Latini, Ennio fu produzione del favore di Caton, 
-maggiore, Terenzio di quello di Scipione Luctezio fu 1'ammi- 
razione e la delizia dei Grandi, e Cavalier riguardevole egli 
stesso, e Cicerone fu l'Arbitro un tempo della Repubblica ; 
Virgilio e Orazio ebbero uno Augusto che gli colmo di beneftzj, 
e Cornelio Tacito ebbe Tlmperator Traiano per protettore c 
per amico. 

M E venendo alle lingue viventi, la lingua Francese ebbe varj 
governi, che premiarono grandemente quelli scrittori che in essa 
vol.. I. L 



82 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

* He was at Penshurst on the 13th of November, 
1677, and then gave a discharge to the executors 
of his fathers' will, Robert Earl of Sunderland, 
Henry Sydney 7 his brother, and Sir John Pelham, 
bart. for the legacy left him therein of 51001. 

The year following, he stood candidate for the 
town of Guilford, in Surrey ; but the court oppos- 
ing his election, he lost it : and though he drew 
up an account of the irregular proceedings in it, yet 
he did not think proper to pursue his claim. In 
1679, he stood likewise candidate for the borough 
-of Bramber, in Sussex ; but was not chose, the in- 
terest being before made by Sir John Pelham, and 
the Sydney family, (fearing the ardour and intrepidity 
of his temper in such times) for his brother Henry 
Sydney, afterwards Earl of Romney. 

In 1683, he was accused of being concerned in 
the Rye-house plot ; and after the lord Russel had 
been examined, he was brought before the king and 
council. fHe told them, that he would make the 
best defence he could, if they had any proof against 

in qualche maniera si distinsero; nondimeno non oltrepasso, il 
figurar nel Teatro, c divenire la lingua franca di alcune nazioni 
d'Europa per il militate e la mercatura : e se la lingua Inglese 
c divenuta la lingua della filosofia e di orgni altra scienza lo 
deve al genio libero e inquisitive* della nazionc, secondato 
dalle vastissime ricchezze che le ha somministrate il commer- 
cio, mezzo efficaccissimo a condur gl'ingegni a gran cole nqn 
meno che alia corruzione." 

* Collins' Memoirs. 

t Burnet, vol. I. p. 54$. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 83 

him, but he would not fortify their evidence by any 
thing that he should say ; so that his examination 
was very short. He lay some time in the Tower, 
and was brought thence by habeas corpus on the 7th 
of November, 1683, to the king's-bench-bar, where 
he was arraigned on an indictment of high treason. 
On the 21st of November he was tried. For the 
particulars of the trial, the reader will be pleased to 
refer to it. 

The Colonel being found guilty, when he was 
brought into court to receive sentence, he repeated 
his objections to the evidence against him ; * in 
which judge Withins interrupted him, and by a 
strange indecency gave him the lie in open court, 
which he bore patiently. 

His execution was respited for three weeks ; the 
trial being universally exclaimed against, as a piece 
of most enormous injustice. After conviction he 
sent to the lord Halifax, who was his nephew by 
marriage, a paper to be laid before the king, con- 
taining the main points of his defence, upon which 
he appealed to his majesty, and desired he would 
review the whole matter. Whereupon the lord chief 
justice Jefferies, who had tried him, said, t ■ That 
either Sydney must die or he must dieS During 
his imprisonment, he sent for some independent 
preachers, and expressed to them a deep remorse 
for his past sins, and a great confidence in the mer- 

* See the note in the Trial, 
t Burnet, vol. i. p. 572. 



84 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

cies of God. When he saw the warrant for execu- 
tion, he expressed no concern at it, and the change 
that was in his temper amazed all who went to him. 
* He told the sheriffs who brought the warrant, that 

* " This indenture made the seventh day of December, in 
the five and thirtieth year of the reign of our sovereign lord 
Charles the Second, by the grace of God king of England, 
Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. and 
in the year of our Lord 1683, between the honourable Tho- 
mas Cheeke, Esq. lieutenant of his majesty's Tower of Lon- 
don, of the one part, and Peter Daniel, Esq. and Samuel Dash- 
wood, Esq. sheriffs of the county of Middlesex, of the other 
part : Whereas Algernon Sydney, Esq. by warrant of the 
right honourable Sir Leolin Jenkins, knight, his majesty's 
principal secretary of state ; bearing date at Whitehall the 
iive and twentieth day of June, in the five and thirtieth year 
of the reign of king Charles the Second aforesaid, was com- 
mitted to the custody of the said lieutenant of the Tower for 
high treason, in compassing the death of the king, and con- 
spiring to levy war against him, by him the said lieutenant to 
be safely kept until he should be delivered by due course of 
law: and whereas, by writ issuing out of his majesty's court 
of king's bench, under the seal of the said court, bearing date 
the eight and twentieth day of November last past, reciting the 
judgment of the said court against the said Algernon Sydney for 
divers high treasons touching his majesty's person, whereof he 
then stood convicted and attainted, the said lieutenant of the Tow- 
er was commanded, that upon Friday the seventh day of Decem- 
ber then next coming, he the said lieutenant should meet the 
sheriffs of Middlesex at Tower-hill, and there cause the said 
Algernon Sydney to he delivered to the said sheriffs, to the in- 
tent that the said sheriffs might cause execution to be made of 
(lim the said Algernon Sydney, in such manner as in the said 
writ is recited. Now this indenture witnesseth, that the said 
Thomas Cheeke, in obedience to the said writ, and in perform- 
ance of his majesty's command therein specified, doth, the day 



ALGERNON SYDNEY, 85 

he should not expostulate upon any thing on his ac- 
count, for the world was now nothing to him ; but 
he desired they would consider, how guilty they were 
of his blood, who had not returned a fair jury, but 
one packed and as they were directed by the king's 
solicitor. He spoke this to them, not for his own 
sake, but for their sake. One of the sheriffs was 
struck with this, and wept. He wrote a long vindi- 
cation of himself, which Bishop Burnet says he had 
read; and that he summed up the substance of it in 
the paper which he gave to the sheriffs ; and sus- 
pecting they might suppress it, he gave a copy of it 
to a friend. It was a fortnight before it was printed, 
though the speeches of those who died for the popish 
plot were published the very next day ; and it would 
npt have been suffered to have been printed, but that 
written copies were daily dispersed. He met death 

of the date of these present indenture, deliver unto the said 
Peter Daniel and Samuel Dashwood, the body of the said Al- 
gernon Sydney, in the said writ mentioned, according to the 
form and effect of the said writ; and the said Peter Daniel and 
Samuel Dashwood, do hereby acknowledge to have received, on 
the day of the date of this present indenture, of and from the 
said Thomas Cheeke,the body of the said Algernon Sydney, and 
of him do acquit and discharge the said Thomas Cheeke by 
these presents. ...In witness whereof the parties to these pre- 
sents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals, 
the day and year first above written. 

PETER DANIEL. 
SAMUEL DASHWOOD. 

Sealed and delivered^ 
in the presence of 5 

RICH. BRADBORNE. 
OB» REYNOLDS. 



86 1IFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

with an unconcernedness which became one, who 
had set up Marcus Brutus for his pattern. He was 
but a few minutes on the scaffold on Tower-hill ; he 
spake little, and his prayer was very short. His 
head was cut off at one blow, on the 7th of Decem- 
ber, 1683, aged about sixty-one years. The next 
day his body was interred with his ancestors at Pen- 
shurst. The paper which he delivered to the sheriffs, 
sets forth his innocence, and the violent treatment 
which he had undergone, with such force that it de- 
serves to be inserted here at full length : 

4 Men, Brethren, and Fathers ; Friends, 
Countrymen, and Strangers ! 

* It may be expected, that I should now say some 
great matters unto you; but the rigor of the season, 
and the infirmities of my age, increased by a close 
imprisonment of above five months, do not per- 
mit me. 

' Moreover we live in an age that makes truth pass 
for treason : I dare not say any thing contrary to it, 
and the ears of those that are about me will probably 
be found too tender to hear it. My trial and con- 
demnation doth sufficiently evidence this. 

' West, Rumsey, and Keyling, who were brought 
to prove the plot, said no more of me, than that they 
knew me not ; and some others, equally unknown 
to me, had used my name and that of some others, 
to give a little reputation to their designs. The lord 
Howard is too infamous by his life, and the many 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 87 

perjuries not to be denied or rather sworn by him- 
self, to deserve mention; and being a single witness, 
would be of no value, though he had been of un- 
blemished credit, or had not seen and confessed, that 
the crimes committed by him would be pardoned 
only for committing more ; and even the pardon 
promised could not be obtained till the drudgery of 
swearing was over. 

* This being laid aside, the whole matter is reduc- 
ed to the papers said to be found in my closet by the 
king's officers, without any other proof of their being 
written by me, than what is taken from suppositions 
upon the similitude of an hand that is easily counter- 
feited, and which hath been lately declared, in the 
lady Car's case, to be no lawful evidence in criminal 
causes. 

■ But, if I had been seen to write them, the mattes 
would not be much altered. They plainly appear to 
relate to a large treatise written long since in answer 
to Filmer's book, which by all intelligent men is 
thought to be grounded upon wicked principles,, 
equally pernicious to magistrates and people. 

1 If he might publish to the world his opinion.... 
that all men are born under a necessity derived from 
the laws of God and nature, to submit to an absolute 
kingly government, which could be restrained by no 
law, or oath ; and that he that has the power, whether 
he came to it by creation, election, inheritance, 
usurpation, or any other way, had the right's and 



88 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

none must oppose his will, but the persons and 
estates of his subjects must be indispensably subject 
unto it ; I know not why I might not have publish- 
ed my opinion to the contrary, without the breach 
of any law I have yet known. 

' I might, as freely as he, publicly have declared 
my thoughts, and the reasons upon which they were 
grounded; and I am persuaded to believe, that God 
had left nations to the liberty of setting up such gov- 
ernments as best pleased themselves.... 

' That magistrates were set up for the good of na- 
tions, not nations for the honour and glory of magis- 
trates.... 

' That the right and power of magistrates in every 
country was that which the laws of that country 
made it to be.... 

1 That those laws were to be observed, and the 
oaths taken by them, having the force of a contract 
between magistrate and people, could not be violated 
without danger of dissolving the whole fabric... 

' That usurpation could give no right; and the 
most dangerous of all enemies to kings were they, 
who raising their power to an exorbitant height, al- 
lowed to usurpers all the rights belonging unto it.... 

c That such usurpations being seldom compass- 
ed without the slaughter of the reigning person or 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 89 

family, the worst of all villanies was thereby reward- 
ed with the most glorious privileges.... 

' That if such doctrines were received, they would 
stir up men to the destruction of princes with more 
violence than all the passions that have hitherto raged 
in the hearts of the most unruly. ... .' 

* That none could be safe, if such a reward were 
proposed to any that could destroy them.... 

* That few could be so gentle as to spare even the 
best, if, by their destruction, a wild usurper could 
become God's anointed, and by the most execrable 
wickedness invest himself with that divine character. 

' This is the scope of the whole treatise ; the writer 
gives such reasons, as at present did occur unto him, 
to prove it. This seems to agree with the doctrines 
of the most reverenced authors of all times, nations 
and religions. The best and wisest of kings have 
ever acknowledged it. The present king of France 
has declared, that kings have that hapjpy want of 
power, that they can do nothing contrary to the laws 
of their country ; and grounds his quarrel with the 
king of Spain, anno 1667, upon that principle. King 
James, in his speech to the Parliament, anno 1603, 
doth in the highest degree assert it : the scripture 
seems to declare it. If nevertheless the writer was 
mistaken, he might have been refuted by law, reason 
and scripture ; and no man for such matters was ever 

VOL. i. M 



90 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

otherwise punished, than by being made to see his 
error ; and it has not, as I think, been ever known 
that they had been referred to the judgment of a jury, 
composed of men utterly unable to comprehend them. 

' But there was little of this in my case : the extra- 
vagance of my prosecutors goes higher : the above- 
mentioned treatise was never finished, nor could be 
in many years, and most probably would never have 
been. So much as is of it was written long since, 
never reviewed, nor shewn to any man ; and the fifti- 
eth part of it was not produced, and not the tenth part 
of that offered to be read. That which was never 
known to those who are said to have conspired with 
me, was said to be intended to stir up the people in 
prosecution of the designs of those conspirators. 

* When nothing of particular application to time, 
place, or person could be found in it, as has ever been 
done by those who endeavoured to raise insurrections, 
all was supplied by inuendos. 

' Whatsoever is said of the expulsion of Tarquin ; 
the insurrection against Nero ; the slaughter of Cali- 
gula or Domitian ; the translation of the crown of 
France from Meroveous his race to Pepin and from 
his descendants to Hugh Capet and the like ; was ap- 
plied by innuendo to the king. 

* They have not considered, that if such acts of state 
be not good, there is not a king in the world that has 
any title to the crown he wears ; nor can have any 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. $1 

unless he could deduce his pedigree from the eldest 
son of Noah, and shew that the succession had still 
continued in the eldest of the eldest line, and been 
so deduced to him. 

* Every one may see what advantage this would be 
to all the kings of the world; and whether, that fail- 
ing, it were not better for them to acknowledge they 
had received their crowns by the consent of willing 
nations, or to have no better title to them than usur- 
pation and violence; which, by the same ways, may 
be taken from them. 

' But I wa^ long since told, that I must die or the 
plot must die. 

c Lest the means of destroying the best protestants 
in England should fail, the bench must be filled with 
such as had been blemishes to the bar. 

c None but such as these would have advised with 
the king's council of the means of bringing a man to 
death ; suffered a jury to be packed by the king's 
solicitors and the under- sheriff; admit of jurymen 
who are not freeholders ; receive such evidence as is 
above-mentioned ; refuse a copy of an indictment, 
or suffer the statute of 46 Edward III. to be read, 
that doth expressly enact, l It should in no case be 
denied to any man> upon any occasion whatsoever ;' 
over-rule the most important points of law without 
hearing. And whereas the statute, 25 Edward III. 
upon which they said I should be tried, doth reserve 



92 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OX- 

to the Parliament all constructions to be made in 
points of treason, they could assume to themselves 
not only a power to make constructions, but such 
constructions as neither agree with law, reason or 
common sense. 

< By these means I am brought to this place. The 
Lord forgive these practices, and avert the evils that 
threaten the nation from them ! The Lord sanctify 
these my sufferings unto me ! and though I fall as a 
sacrifice to idols, suffer not idolatry to be established 
in this land. Bless thy people, and save them. De- 
fend thy own cause, and defend those that defend it. 
Stir up such as are faint ; direct those that are will- 
ing; confirm those that waver ; give wisdom and in- 
tegrity to all. Order all things so, as may most re- 
dound to thine own glory. Grant that I may die 
glorifying thee for all thy mercies ; and that at the 
last thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a 
witness of thy truth, and even by the confession of 
my opposers, for that * old cause in which I was 
from my youth engaged, and for which thou hast 
often and wonderfully declared thyself.' 

* Col. Sydney bore this only motto, without figure, on the 
Parliament's part in the late war, 

SAKCTVS . AMOR . PATRIAE . DAT . ANIMVM . 

The art of making devises, etc....London, 1650, 
in quarto* 

Atque Sidneium, quod ego illustre nomen nostria 

semper adhaesisse partibus laetor. 

Johannis Miltoni, Angli, pro Populo Anglicane 
defensio secunda. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 93 

Upon * the revolution, such regard was had to his 
innocence and the justice due to his memory, that 
the Parliament made it one of their first acts to re- 

C* Ufion the revolution,) 
See " A letter humbly addrest to the most excellent father 
of his country, the wise and victorious prince, King William 
III. By a dutiful and well-meaning subject (the Rev. Mr. 
Stephens, rector of Sutton, in Surry)."....London, printed by 
J. Darby, 1698, in quarto. 

Nothing therefore could determine that unfortunate 

king (James II.) to depart once and again, but the fixt resolu- 
tions I have already mentioned, to carry through his scheme by- 
force; for otherwise, and if he had been resolved to give up 
that scheme, after he saw such manifest proofs of the aversion 
of the whole nation and of his own family to it, it is easy and 
obvious to see what must have been his conduct : he would 
have remained in his palace and granted all the demands of 
the Prince of Orange's declaration : and agreed to the very 
thing which you now promise by yours, namely, to refuse 
nothing that a free Parliament could have asked, for the secu- 
rity of the religion, laws, and liberties of his people. 

Now, as he might and ought to have done this, and did not 
do it, which was the only method of retaining his crown, con- 
sistent with that security of the religion and liberties of his 
people, it is evident that he did indeed abdicate his crown. 

And in respect of the many essential miscarriages by him 
committed and persisted in, the people had undeniable reasons 
to declare the throne vacant ; and having thus far done them- 
selves justice, and provided for their own security against the 
evils of popery and slavery with which they had been threaten- 
ed, it remained for them to provide for the future government 
of this kingdom by making a new settlement. 

Here it was, that the wisdom and moderation of the leading 
men of this nation, at that time, was discovered : it was a re- 
gal government though limited by laws, and they resolved 



94f LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

peal his attainder, on the 13th of February, 1688-9; 
the preamble to the act being in the following 
words : 

that it should continue such, justly dreading a relapse into the 
anarchy and confusions, and the despotic government of the 
usurper, which had succeeded the abolition of the royal au- 
thority about the middle of that century. 

It was a hereditary kingdom, though not indefeasibly such ; 
and therefore they departed as little as possible from the regu- 
lar course of succession in the royal family, and no farther 
than was necessary for securing the liberties of the subject. 
They acted as any wise and good man would do, who is master 
of his own estate. If his eldest son proves unworthy, and 
merits being disinherited, he will settle his estate on his second 
son and his issue in their order. And thus we settled the crown 
on the eldest daughter of the abdicated prince ; and in default 
of her issue, on the second daughter; in default of her issue, on 
the Prince of Orange himself, who was the next in succession, 
if he should have any by another wife than the Princess Mary; 
and when the prospect of successors failed among the protest- 
ant descendants of King Charles the First, the nation looked out 
for the next protestant heir, who was a grandchild of King 
James the First, and settled the crown upon her and the heirs 
of her body, being protestants. 

Thus was the constitution maintained, and the government 
re-established in its natural and regular state of a limited and 
hereditary monarchy, which fell afterwards, by succession, upon 
the death of Queen Anne, to the late King George ; a prince 
who was born of a dignity next to the regal ; whose family have 
been remarkable for affording good princes over their subjects, 
whom they are intitled to govern absolutely ; who was himself 
as mild and able a monarch as ever reigned. He was succeed- 
ed by our present sovereign, whom all the world must allow to 
be remarkably possessed of two virtues the most deserving of 
esteem amongst mankind, probity and magnanimity : and for 
tjie mildness of his government, let this singular circumstance 



' ALGERNON SYDNEY. 9$ 

* Whereas Algernon Sydney, Esq. in the term of 
St. Michael, in the five and thirtieth year of the reign 
of our late sovereign lord King Charles the Second, 

bear witness....that we are now in the 19th year of his reign, 
and hitherto not one drop of blood shed for a state-crime, even 
in the legal methods of trial, though there have not been want- 
ing occasions, even before you was pleased to make us a visit, 
for just severities of that kind. 

Of this prince, now reigning, the nation is blessed with a 
numerous and hopeful issue ; whereof the greater part have 
been born and educated amongst ourselves. 

And the case so standing, in respect to the abdication of your 
grandfather, and the succeeding new settlement of the crown in 
the protestant line of the royal family, which has already taken 
effect during the space of fifty-seven years, which you mention 
as the duration of the exile of your family, and urge as being 
more than sufficient atonement for the miscarriages of your 
grandfather; you come, sir, a great deal too late with your pro- 
fessions of repentance and promises of amendment; for as I 
began with the question of expediency, I am now considering 
the question of right and strict justice, and by this you are cuf 
off, independent of the former. 

This is indeed the true state of the question, where the right 
and title now lies ; and upon this I maintain, that supposing ?, 
great deal which is not true, that your family was not still 
popish, bred at Rome, and favoured by France the natural 
enemy of Great Britain, and the common enemy of the liberties 
of Europe ; supposing you were sincere in your promises, and 
that your religion did not authorise and require you to break 
them ; and supposing you personally, as I am willing to believe, 
possessed of many good qualities becoming a prince, still you 
come too late ; we cannot listen to your declaration, though 
you should lift up your voice like Esau, and cry, Have you but 
one blessing, O my people ? For it is true that we have but 
one, and that is already conferred on thy protestant brother ; 
and we cannot with justice/ deprive him of it, supposing we 



96 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

in the court of king's-bench at Westminster, by 
means of an unlawful return of jurors, and by denial 
of his lawful challenges to divers of them, for want of 

could do it with prudence, or consistently with the security of 
our religion, laws, and liberties. 

And to make you sensible of the force of this consideration, 
if you can see the truth when it is repugnant to your own in- 
terest and wishes, suffer me, etc. etc. etc. 

The Occasional Writer (a very fine liberty-tract) : Or 
an answer to the second manifesto of the Pretender's 
eldest son, which bears date at the Palace of Holy- 
Rood-House, Oct. 10, 1745 ; Containing reflections 
political and historical upon the last Revolution, and 
the progress of the present Rebellion in Scotland. 
Tandem trium/i/ians, Motto to the Pretender's standard. 
Nondum immemores, Answer. The second edition, cor- 
rected.. ..London, printed for A.Millar, 1746, in octavo. 

The new settlement before mentioned, seems to have been 
gratefully perpetuated by that excellent prince, George I. in 
the following medals or rather medaglions, which, it is appre- 
hended, were struck at Hanover by his orders: 

I.) MATILDA . FILIA . H . II . R . ANGL . VX . H . LEON . 
D * BAV . ET . SAX . MATER . OTT . IV . IMP . PRIVS . DVCIS . 
AQVIT . H . PAL . RHEN . D . S . WILH . SATORIS . DOMVS. 

brvns . Bust of the Empress, in profile. 

SOPHIA . EXSTIRPAE . EL . PAL . NEPT . IAC . I . REG . M . 
BRIT . VIDVA . ERN . AVG . EL . BRVNS . ET . L . ANGL1AE . 

princeps. AD . SVCESS . NOMINATA . MDCCI. Bust 
of the Princess, in profile. 

II.) SOPHIA . D . G . EX . STIRPE . EL . PAL . ELEC . VID . 

br . et . lvn . MAG - BRIT - HAERES. Bust of the Prin- 
cess, in profile. 

transmissa . lvce . refvlget . The setting sun, with a 
view of the garden of Herrenhausen. In the exurge, obit . 
*iii . ivn . mdccxiv. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 97 

freehold, and without sufficient legal evidence of any 
treasons committed by him ; there being at that 
time produced a paper, found in the closet of the 
said Algernon, supposed to be his hand- writing ; 
which was not proved by the testimony of any one 
witness, to be written by him ; but the jury was 
directed to believe it, by comparing it with other 
writings of the said Algernon : and besides that paper 
so produced, there was but one single witness to 
prove any matter against the said Algernon ; and by 
a partial and unjust construction of the statute declar- 
ing what w r as his treason, was most unjustly and 
wrongfully convicted and attainted, and afterwards 
executed for high treason : may it therefore please 
your excellent majesties, at the humble petition and 
request of the right honourable Philip, Earl of Lei- 
cester, brother and heir of the said Algernon Syd- 

III.) GEORGIVS . D . G . MAG . BRIT . FR . ET . HIB . REX, 

Bust of the King, in profile. 

PRING . OPT . RELIGIONIS . ET . LIBERTATIS . GVSTODI • 

Britannia presenting the Regalia to the King, who is accompani- 
ed by religion and liberty. In the exurge, pvblica . avctori- 

TATE. PROCLAMATO. X AUG . ANNO. MDCCXIIII . 
XII 

Three smaller medals, about the sizes of a crown, half 
-crown, and shilling, where likewise struck by him ; the faces 
of which agree with medal n, but the reverses bear only the 
following inscription : nata . xm . oct . mdcxxx . nvpta • 
mense . sept . mdclviii . AD . SVCCESSIONEM . M. 
BRIT . NOMINATA. MDCCI . svb . vesperam . vm . 

IVNII . MDCCXIV . IN . HORTIS . HERRENHAVSANIS . ADHVC • 
VEGETO . ET . FIRMO . PASSV . DEAMSVLANS . SVBITA . ET 
PLACIDA . MORTE . EREPTA . 
VOL. I. N 



98 LITE AND MEMOIRS OF 

ney, and of the right honourable Henry Viscount 
Sydney, of Sheppey, the other brother of the said 
Algernon, that it be declared and enacted, &c. 
That the said conviction and attainder be repealed, 
reversed, &c. And to the end that right be done 
to the memory of the said Algernon Sydney, de- 
ceased, be it further enacted, That all records and 
proceedings relating to the said attainder be wholly 
cancelled and taken off the file, or other wise defaced 
and obliterated, to the intent that the same may not 
be visible in after ages : and that the records and pro- 
ceedings relating to the said conviction, judgment, 
and attainder, in the court of king's-bench, now re- 
maining, shall and be forthwith brought into the 
court this present Easter term, and then and there 
be taken off the file and cancelled. ' 

Bishop Burnet's character of him is, * That he 
was a man of most extraordinary courage ; a steady 
man, even to obstinacy ; sincere, but of a rough and 
boisterous temper that could not bear contradiction. 
He seemed to be a christian, but in a particular form 
of his own ; he thought it was to be like a divine 
philosophy in the mind: but he was against all 
public worship and every thing that looked like a 
church. He was stiff to all republican principles, 
and such an enemy to every thing that looked like a 
monarchy, that he set himself in high opposition 
against Cromwell, when he was made protector. 
* He had studied the history of government in all its 

f* He had studied the history of government , in all its branches^ 
beyond any man I ever k?i€<w.) 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 99 

branches, beyond any man I ever knew. He had a 
particular way of insinuating himself into people, 

Lords and Commons of England, consider what nation it is 
whereof ye arc, and whereof ye are the governours. A nation 
not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit, 
acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath 
the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can 
soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in their deepest 
sciences have been so ancient, and so eminent among us, that 
writers of good antiquity, and ablest judgment, have been per- 
swaded that even the school of Pythagoras and the Persian 
wisdom, took beginning from the old philosophy of this island. 
And that wise and civil Roman, Julius Agricola, who governed 
once here for Cassar, preferred the natural wits of Britain, be- 
fore the laboured studies of the French Behold now this 

vast city ; a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, en- 
compast and surrounded with his protection ; the shop of 
warre hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to 
fashion out the plates and instruments of armed justice in de- 
fence of beleaguered truth, than there be pens and heads there, 
sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving- 
new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their 
homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation ; others 
as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of rea- 
son and convincement. What could a man require more from 
a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge. . What 
wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soile, but wise and 
faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, a nation of pro- 
phets, of sages, and of worthies.... 

Areopagitica. A speech of John Milton, for the liberty 

of Unlicenced Printing, (gvard it ye britons !). 

To the Parliament of England....London, printed in 

the year 1644, in quarto. 

Cromwell seemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent 
manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and 
wicked men, who have overturned the liberties of their coun- 



100 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

that would hearken to his ^notions, and not contra- 
dict him/ 

try. The times in which others succeeded in this attempt, 
were such as saw the spirit of liberty suppressed and stifled by 
a general luxury and venality : but Cromwell subdued his coun- 
try, when this spirit was at its height, by a successful struggle 
against court oppression; and while it was conducted and sup- 
ported by a set of the greatest geniuses for government the 
world ever saw. 

The very eminent prelate, Dr. Warburton, 
in his notes on Pope's Essay on Man. 

Cromwell was one of those geniuses who are oft times buried in 
obscurity, through want of occasion of being known. Thou- 
sands spend their lives in retirement, who are capable of 
greater things than most of those whose names are tossed 
from every tongue and voiced for wise, skilful, able, valiant. 
In times of peace these men are little known or noticed. They 
are overlooked among the herd, or treated with a coolness or 
disregard, that damps their ambition and establishes their 
virtue, etc. 

The Rev. William Harris, a sensible, candid writer, 
in his "Historical and critical account of the life of 
O. Cromwell." 

The Parliament of Nov. 3, 1640, that master Parliament 
having singularly promoted learning, witness their pupils who 
figured in all professions down to, and beyond the revolution, 
and obtained it too ; the following note, taken from Dr. John 
Wallis' "Account of some passages of his own life," who, in 
the year 1644, was one of the secretaries to the Assembly of 
Divines, at Westminster, and in the year 1649, became public 
professor of geometry, of the foundation of Sir Henry Savile, 
at Oxford, may not be unacceptable. 

" About the year 1645, while I lived in London, at a time, 
when, by our civil wars, academical studies were much inter- 

* Mte.„.Seejiage 102. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 101 

f Several manuscript treatises of his in Latin and 
Italian, and an " Essay on virtuous love," in Eng- 
lish, are still extant among the papers of his family 

rupted in both our Universities, beside the conversation of 
divers eminent divines, as to matters theological ; I had the 
opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons, 
inquisitive into natural philosophy and other parts of human 
learning ; and particularly of what hath been called, the new 
philosophy, or experimental philosophy. 

" We did by agreement, divers of us, meet weekly in Lon- 
don, on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such affairs. 
Of such number were Dr. John Wilkins, afterward bishop of 
Chester, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, 
Dr. Merret, doctors in physic, Mr. Samuel Foster, then 
professor of astronomy at Gresham College ; Mr. Theodore 
Haak, a German of the Palatinate, and then resident in Lon^ 
don (who, I think, gave the first occasion and first suggested 
those meetings) and many others. 

" These meetings we held sometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodg- 
ings in Wood-street, or some convenient place near, on occa- 
sion of his keeping an operator for grinding glasses for teles- 
copes and microscopes ; and sometimes at a convenient place 
in Cheapside; sometimes at Gresham College, or someplace 
near adjoining. 

" Our business was, precluding matters of theology and 
state affairs, to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, 
and such as related thereunto ; as physic, anatomy, geome- 
try, astronomy, navigation, statics, magnetics, chymics, 
mechanics and natural experiments, with the state of these 
studies, as then cultivated, at home and abroad. 

" About the year 1648 or 1649, some of us being removed 
to Oxford, first Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr. God- 
dard, our company divided. Those in London continued to 
meet there, as before, and we with them, when we had occa- 

t Note,,. . See next page. 



102 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

at Penshurst: but his " Discourses concerning Gov- 
ernment" alone will immortalize his name, and are 
sufficient to supply the loss of Cicero's six books 

sion to be there. And those of us at Oxford, with Dr. Ward, 
since bishop of Salisbury ; Dr. Ralph Bathurst, now president 
of Trinity College in Oxford ; Dr. Petty, since Sir William 
Petty ; Dr. Willis, then an eminent physician in Oxford, and 
divers others, continued such meetings in Oxford, and brought 
those studies into fashion there ; meeting first at Dr. Petty's 
lodgings in an apothecary's house, because of the convenience 
of inspecting drugs, and the like, as there was occasion ; and 
after his remove to Ireland, though not so constantly, at the 
lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then warden of Wadham College; 
and after his removal to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the 
lodgings of the honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, then resident for 
divers years in Oxford. 

" Those meetings in London continued ; and, after the 
king's return in 1660, were increased with the accession of 
divers worthy and honourable persons ; and were afterwards 
incorporated by the name of " The Royal Society," etc. and 
so continue to this day." 

* Notions ! a strange word after what had been just before 
declared. But the character is roughly, inaccurately drawn. 
Would it had been drawn at large, by Mr. Pelhain ! (see the 
note in the trial) this magnanimous character ! 

f In the year 1744, a work was published in 2 vols, octavo, 
intitled, " Of the Use and Abuse of Parliaments ; in two his- 
torical discourses, viz. I. A general View of Government in 
Europe. II. A Detection of the Parliaments of England, 
from the year 1660." To that work the following advertise- 
ment is prefixed. " As an act of justice to the memory of a 
great man, it is necessary to acquaint the reader, that he stands 
indebted for the first of the following discourses, to the cele- 
brated Algernon Sydney." 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 103 

u De Republican ' which has been so much regretted 
by men of sense and probity. In short, * it is one 
of the noblest books that ever the mind of man pro- 

C* It is one of the noblest books that ever the mind of man 
produced,) 

Many circumstances at present call loudly upon us to exert 
ourselves. Venality and corruption have well nigh extinguish- 
ed all principles of liberty. The bad books also that this age 
hath produced, have ruined our youth. The novels and roman- 
ces which are eagerly purchased and read, emasculate the mind, 
and banish every thing grave and manly. One remedy for 
these evils is, to revive the reading of our old writers, of which 
we have good store, and the study whereof would fortify our 
youth against the blandishments of pleasure and the arts of 
corruption. 

Milton in particular ought to be read and studied by all our 
young gentlemen, as an oracle. 

He was a great and noble genius, perhaps the greatest that 
ever appeared amongst men ; and his learning was equal to his 
genius. He had the highest sense of liberty, glorious thoughts, 
with a strong and nervous style. His works arc full of wis- 
dom, a treasure of knowledge. In them the divine, the 
statesman, the historian, the philologist, may be all instructed 
and entertained. It is to be lamented that his divine writings 
are so little known. Very few are acquainted with them, many 
have never heard of them. The same is true, with respect to 
another great writer, contemporary with Milton, and an advocate 
for the same glorious cause ; I mean Algernon Sydney, whose 
' Discourses Concerning Government,' are the most precious 
legacy to these nations. 

All antiquity cannot shew two writers equal to these. They 
were both great masters of reason, both great masters of ex- 
pression. They had the strongest thoughts, and the boldest 
images, and are the best models that can be followed. The 
style of Sydney is always clear and flowing, strong and mascu- 
line. The great Milton has a style of his own. one fit to ex- 



104 LIFE AND MEMOIRS OF 

duced ; and we cannot wish a greater or more exten- 
sive blessing to the world, than that it may be every 

press the astonishing sublimity of his thoughts, the mighty 
vigour of his spirit, and that cojiia of invention, that redundancy 
of imagination, which no writer before or since hath equal- 
led. In some places, it is confessed, that his periods are too 
long, which renders him intricate, if not altogether unintel- 
ligible to vulgar readers ; but these places are not many. In 
the book before us, his style is for the most part free and easy, 
and it abounds both in eloquence and wit and argument. I am 
of opinion that the style of this work is the best and most 
perfect of all his prose writings. Other men have commended 
the style of his history as matchless and incomparable, whose 
malice could not see or would not acknowledge the excellency 
of his other works. It is no secret whence their aversion to 
Milton proceeds ; and whence their caution of naming him as 
any other writer than a poet. Milton combatted superstitions 
of every form, and in every degree. Against them he employ- 
ed his mighty strength, and, like a battering-ram, beat down all 
before him. But notwithstanding these mean arts either to 
hide or to disparage him, a little time will make him better 
known ; and the more he is known, the more he will be admired. 
His works are not like the fugitive, short-lived things of this 
age, few of which survive their authors; they are substantial, 
durable, eternal writings, which will never die, never perish, 
whilst reason, truth and liberty have a being in these nations. 

The Editor's preface to Eikonoklastes.... Printed 
for A. Miller, 1756, in quarto. 

There is a long and singular passage in the Leviathan, edit. 
1651, p. 110, under this marginal head, "the libertie which 
writers praise is the libertie of sovereaigns not of private men," 
which concludes in the following manner, " and by reading 
of these Greek and Latine authors, men from their childhood 
have gotten a habit, under a false shew of libertie, of favour- 
ing tumults and of licentious controlling the actions of their 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 105 

where read, and its principles universally received 
and propagated. 

soveraigns ; and again of controlling those controllers ; with 
the effusion of so much blood, as I think I may truly say, there 
never was any thing so dearly bought, as these western parts 
have bought the learning of the Greek and Latine tongues.' ■ 

The accomplished, beneficent Earl of Shaftesbury, in his 
" Essay on the freedom of wit and humour" remarks on this 
passage, " And yet an able and witty philosopher of our nation 
was, we know, of late years, so possessed with a horrour of 
this kind, that both with respect to politics and morals, he di- 
rectly acted in this spirit of massacre. The fright he took 
upon the sight of the then governing powers, who unjustly as- 
sumed the authority of the people, gave him such an abhorrence 
of all popular government, and of the very notion of liberty 
itself; that to extinguish it for ever, he recommends the very 
extinguishing of letters, and exhorts princes not to spare so 
much as an ancient Roman or Greek historian. Is not this in 
truth somewhat Gothic ? And has not our philosopher, in ap- 
pearance, something of the savage, that he should use philo- 
sophy and learning as the Scythians are said to have used An- 
acharsis and others, for having visited the wise of Greece and 
learnt the manners of a polite people ? And, in the notes, he 
adds, " By this reasoning of Mr. Hobbes it should follow, that 
there can never be any tumults or deposing of sovereigns at Con- 
stantinople or in Mogol." 



VOL. I. 



C|>e Cnal 

OF 

ALGERNON SYDNEY. 



THE ARRAIGNMENT, TRIAL, AND CONDEMNATION OF ALGERNON 
SYDNEY, FOR HIGH TREASON, FOR CONSPIRING THE DEATH 
OF THE KING, AND INTENDING TO RAISE A REBELLION IN 
THIS KINGDOM. BEFORE THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE 
JEFFREYS, KNIGHT AND BARONET, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF 
ENGLAND : AT HIS MAJESTY'S COURT OF KING'S-BENCH AT 
WESTMINSTER, ON THE SEVENTH, TWENTY-FIRST, AND 
TWENTY-SEVENTH OF NOVEMBER, MDCLXXXIII* 



THE ARRAIGNMENT, NOV. 7. 



Algernon Sydney, Esquire, was by habeas 
corpus brought up to the bar of the court of king's- 
bench ; and the clerk of the crown having read the 
return, Mr. Attorney-General informed the court, 
there was an indictment against the prisoner, and 
prayed he might be charged with it. 

Clerk of the Crown. Algernon Sydney, hold up 
thy hand [.which he did]. 



108 THE TRIAL OF 

Midd. ss. The jurors for our lord the king upon 
oath do present, that Algernon Sydney, late of the 
parish of St. Martin in the Fields, in the county of 
Middlesex, Esquire, as a false traitor against the most 
illustrious, most excellent prince, our lord Charles 
the Second, by the grace of God king of England, 
Scotland, France, and Ireland, and his natural lord ; 
not having the fear of God in his heart, nor weighing 
the duty of his allegiance, but moved and seduced by 
the instigation of the devil, utterly withdrawing the 
cordial love, and true, due, and natural obedience 
which a true and faithful subject of our said lord the 
king should bear towards him the said lord the king, 
and of right is bound to bear ; contriving, and with 
all his strength intending, to disturb the peace and 
common tranquillity of this kingdom of England, 
and to stir up and move war and rebellion against the 
said lord the king, and to subvert the government of 
the said lord the king, in this kingdom of England, 
and to depose and deprive the said lord the king from 
the title, honour, and regal name, of the imperial 
crown of his kingdom of England, and to bring and 
put the said lord the king to death and final destruc- 
tion, the thirtieth day of June, in the five and thirtieth 
year of the reign of our lord King Charles the Second, 
now king of England, Sec. and divers other days and 
times, as well before as after, at the parish of St. 
Giles in the Fields, in the county of Middlesex, ma- 
liciously and traitorously, with divers other traitors 
to the jurors aforesaid unknown, did conspire, com- 
pass, imagine, and intend, to deprive and cast down 
the said lord the king, his supreme natural lord ; not 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 109 

only from the regal state, title, power, and rule of his 
kingdom of 'England, but also to kill, and bring and 
pat to death, the same lord the king, and to change, 
alter, and utterly subvert, the ancient government of 
this his kingdom of England, and to cause and pro- 
cure a miserable slaughter among the subjects of the 
said lord the king through his whole kingdom of Eng- 
land, and to move and stir up an insurrection and re- 
bellion against the said lord the king, within this 
kingdom of England. And to fulfil and perfect those 
his most horrid, wicked, and diabolical treasons, and 
traitorous compassings, imaginations, and purposes, 
the same Algernon Sydney, as a false traitor, then 
and there, and divers other days and times, as well 
before as after, maliciously, traitorously, and ad- 
visedly, did assemble himself, meet and consult with 
the aforesaid other traitors to the jurors aforesaid un- 
known, and with the same traitors did treat of, and 
for, those his treasons and traitorous compassings, 
imaginations, and purposes, to be executed and ful- 
filled. And that the aforesaid Algernon Sydney, as 
a false traitor, maliciously, traitorously, and advisedly, 
then and there, and divers other days and times, as 
well before as after, upon himself did assume, and 
to the aforesaid other traitors did promise, that he 
would be aiding and assisting in the execution of 
their treasons and traitorous compassings, imagina- 
tions, and purposes aforesaid. And to fulfil, perfect, 
and reduce to effect, those their most horrid treasons 
and traitorous compassings, imaginations, and pur- 
poses aforesaid, the same Algernon Sydney, as a 
false traitor, then and there, falsely, maliciously, ad- 



110 THE TRIAL OF 

visedly, and traitorously, did send one Aaron Smith 
into Scotland, to invite, procure, and incite divers 
evil disposed subjects of our said lord the king, of 
his kingdom of Scotland, to come into this kingdom 
of England, to advise and consult with the aforesaid 
Algernon Sydney, and the aforesaid other unknown 
traitors in this kingdom of England, of aid and as- 
sistance to be expected and supplied from the king- 
dom of Scotland to fulfil,, perfect, and reduce to effect, 
those their most wicked, horrid, and traitorous trea- 
sons aforesaid^ And that the aforesaid Algernon 
Sydney, to fulfil and perfect those most wicked, hor- 
rid, and devilish treasons, and traitorous compassings, 
imaginations and purposes aforesaid, and to persuade 
the subjects of the said lord the king of this kingdom 
of England, that it is lawful to make and stir up an 
insurrection and rebellion against the said lord the 
king that now is, the said thirtieth day of June, in 
the five and thirtieth year of the reign of the said lord 
the king that now is, at the parish of St. Giles in the 
Fields, in the county of Middlesex, falsely, unlaw- 
fully, wickedly, seditiously, and traitorously, did 
make, compose, and write, and cause to be made, 
composed, and written, a certain false, seditious and 
traitorous libel, in which said false> seditious and 
traitorous libel, among other things, is contained as 
followeth in these English words, viz. " The power 
" originally in the people of England is delegated un- 
"to the Parliament. He [the most serene lord, 
" Charles the Second now king of England, mean- 
V ing] is subject unto the law of God, as he is a man ; 
" to the people that makes him a king, inasmuch as 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. Ill 

" he is a king : the law sets a measure unto that sub- 
" jection, and the Parliament judges of the particular 
" cases thereupon arising. He must be content to 
" submit his interest unto theirs, since he is no more 
" than any one of them in any other respect than that 
" he is, by the consent of all, raised above any other. 
" If he doth not like this condition, he may renounce 
" the crown ; but if he receive it upon that condition, 
" (as all magistrates do the power they receive) and 
" swear to perform it, he must expect that the per- 
" formance will be exacted, or revenge taken by 
" those that he hath betrayed." And that in another 
place in the said false, seditious, and traitorous libel, 
among other things, these false, seditious, and trai- 
torous English sentences are contained (that is to say) 
" We may therefore change or take away kings, 
" without breaking any yoke ; or that is made a yoke 
" which ought not to be one : the injury is therefore 
•' in making or imposing, and there can be none in 
" breaking it." Against the duty of his allegiance, 
against the peace of the said now lord the king, his 
crown and dignity, &c. And against the form of 
the statutes in this case made and provided, &c. . 

How sayest thou, art thou guilty of this high trea- 
son whereof thou standest indicted, or not guilty ? 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I find here an heap of 
crimes put together, distinct in nature one from 
another, and distinguished by law ; and I do con- 
ceive, my lord, that the indictment itself is there- 
upon void, and I cannot be impeached upon it. 



112 THE TRIAL OF 

Lord Chief Justice. We are not to admit any 
discourses till you answer the question, whether you 
are guilty, or not guilty. 

Mr. Att. Gen. [Sir Robert Sawyer, knt.] If he v 
will demur, my lord, we will give him leave. 

Col. Sydney. I presume your lordship will direct 
me, for I am an ignorant man in matters of this kind, 
I may easily be surprised in it, I never was at a trial 
in my life of any body, and never read a law-book. 

L. C.J. Because no prisoner under your cir- 
cumstances is to have counsel, but in special cases 
to be assigned in matters of law, the court is bound 
by their oaths and duty of their places, that they shall 
not see any wrong done to you : but the business we 
are to tell you now is, you are to plead guilty or not 
guilty, or demur, which is a confession in point of law. 

Col. Syd?iey. Under favour, my lord, there may 
be indictments that are erroneous ; and if they are 
erroneous and vicious, they are null, and ought not 
to be answered to. 

Mr. Just. Wi thins. If you please to demur to it, 
you shall have liberty to make any exceptions. 

Col. Sydney. I don't demur, 'tis only exceptions. 
I think in matters of life, a man may give in his ex- 
ceptions to the bill, and plead not guilty afterwards. 
I am sure, in Sir Henry Vane's case, the court said it, 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 113 

and offefred him to do it ; that which, under favour, 
I hope to do. 

L. C. /. You must plead or demur. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, if I put in exceptions 
tor the bill, I don't plead till those exceptions are 
over-ruled. This was in the case of Sir Henry Vane. 

L. C. /. Sir, I must tell you, you must either 
plead, or demur. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, there are in this indict- 
ment some treasons, or reputed treasons, that may 
come within the statute of the 13th of this king, 
which is limited by time ; the prosecution must be 
in six months, and the indictment within three. 
Now, my lord, if this business that is mentioned be 
above six months, before my commitment, or above 
three before the indictment, I think, under favour, I 
ought not to answer to these matters. 

L. C. J. You are mistaken in the law. That 
will be saved when the fact comes to appear. If they 
alledge the things to be at a time, which according 
to that allegation would maintain the indictment ; if 
upon the trial it appear otherwise, the court is bound 
to take notice of it, when you come to your trial : 
but we are not bound to examine that before you 
.have pleaded. 

ypL. i. v 



114 THE TRIAL OP. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, every body will acknow- 
ledge, that there have been, or may be, vicious in- 
dictments. Now if I plead to an erroneous indict- 
ment, and am acquitted, I may be indicted again. 
Bills of attainder have been upon errors in original 
indictments, as that of the duke of Somerset. Now 
if there be several things distinct in nature, and dis- 
tinguished by law, that are put together, .'tis impos- 
sible to make a positive answer to any one. If any 
one should tell me that I by myself, or by others, by 
sword or by pistol, conspired to kill the king, I can 
say, I did it, or I did it not. If any one say, I have 
levied war, and by several acts undertake to prove I 
have done it, I can say I have done it, or I have not. 
But here I don't find any thing specified, nor can tell 
upon what statute I am indicted. I pray, I may see 
the record. 

L. C. J. That we can't do. You shall hear it 
read again if you will. If you think it to be a void 
indictment, demur to it if you will. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire you to accept of 
this [shelving a parchment], 

L. C. /. What is it ? Put in what plea you shall 
be advised ; but if you put in a special plea, and Mr. 
Attorney demurs, you may have judgment of death, 
and by that you wave the fact. 

Col. Sydney. I can't make any objection to the 
bill after I have pleaded not guilty ; for I accept the 
bill thereby to be good. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 115 

L. C. J. If you can assign any matter of law, do. 
But otherwise, what a kind of thing would it be ? 
All criminals would say in all cases, I doubt whether 
the bill be good or bad, and after I have thus consid- 
ered of it, I will plead. You are mis-informed ; and 
this the court tells you, as a duty incumbent on them. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. If you demur, and shew 
what your causes are, we will assign you counsel. 

Col. Sydney. I desire you would not try me, and 
make me to run on dark and slippery places. I don't 
see my way. 

L. C. /. Don't apprehend yourself to be so, as if 
the court would run you on any inconvenience. But 
they are bound to see the methods of justice pre- 
served ; they are those that you, and all the king's 
subjects, are bound to conform to. If any one of 
us were in the same condition, we must observe the 
same methods of law. 

Clerk of the Crown. Art thou guilty, or not guilty ? 

Col. Sydney. Then pray, my lord, will you tell 
me this : Is it true, that a man, how vicious soever 
an indictment is, must answer or demur to it ? 

L. C J. He must either answer or demur. 

Col. Sydney. Are there no exceptions to be ad- 
mitted ? 



116 



THE TRIAL OF 



L. C. J. None. And if you don't do the one, 
or the other, judgment passes as if you had pleaded. 

CoL Sydney. This is a plea. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. WiH you stand by it ? Con- 
sider yourself, and your life. If you put in that 
plea, and Mr. Attorney demurs, if your plea be not 
good, your life is gone. 

CoL Sydney. Pray, my lord, give me a day to 
consider of it. 

L. C. /. No. We must not introduce new 
methods or forms for any body. The same case 
that is with you, may be with other people. 

CoL Sydney. My lord, I do not pretend to any 
thing but what is law, and due to every man upon 
English ground. I would be very sorry to do that 
which may be hurtful. 

L. C. J. You have the rule of the court. You 
must do one or the other. Call him to it, 

CoL Sydney. I desire this may be read \_shewing 
the same parchment]. 

L. C. J. It shall not be read, unless you put it 
in as a plea. 

Mr. Att. Gen. I must do my duty : Mr. Wil- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 117 

liams exceeds his liberty, he informs the prisoner of 
several things. 

Mr. Williams. I only said, if it was a plea, put it 
in. Mr. Attorney can hear all I say. [Whereupon 
Mr. Williams was reproved by the Lord Chief 
Justice. ,] 

Col. Sydney. I only give it as exceptions to the 
bill. 

Clerk of the Crozon. Art thou guilty or not guilty ? 

Col. Sydney. If any one should ask me any par- 
ticular thing, I could tell how to answer. 

L. C. J. He asks you a particular thing. 'Tis 
the duty of the court to pronounce judgment, if you 
do not plead. 

Col. Sydney. Why then, if you drive me upon 
it, I must plead. 

L. C. J. I am sure there is no gentleman of the 
long robe would put any such thing into your head. 
There was never any such thing done in capital 
matters. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I am there indicted for 
conspiring the death of the king; I have not con- 
spired the death of the king. I am there indicted 
for levying of war, I have not done that. I am in- 



118 THE TRIAL OF 

dieted for having invited in others, of another nation, 
I have not done that neither. I am there indicted to 
have written a seditious libel to stir up the spirits of 
the people against the king, I have not written any- 
thing to stir up the people against the king.... 

L.C. J. We are not to hear all this. You must 
plead as other people ; or else, in plain English, we 
will pronounce sentence. We ought to give all men 
satisfaction that will be satisfied ; but if they won't 
be directed, we can't help that. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, if you put me upon this 
inevitable necessity, it lies upon you ; I must plead 
then. 

Clerk of the Crown. Art thou guilty, or not guilty ? 

Col. Sydney. Not guilty. 

Clerk of the Croivn. Culprit, how wilt thou be 
tried ? 

Col. Sydney. By God and my country. 

Clerk of the Crown. God send thee a good de- 
liverance. 

L. C. J. If you be not guilty, I pray God you 
may escape. 

Mr. Att. Gen. My lord, will you please to ap- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 119 

point a day for his trial, that he may take notice of 
it now ? 

L. C. J. What time would you have ? 

Mr. Alt. Gen. A week's time, do you think that 
will be enough ? 

Col. Sydney. No : pray, my Lord, give me a 
fortnight's time. 

Mr. Alt. Gen. I won't oppose it. 

Col. Sydney. In the next place I desire a copy of 
the indictment. 

L. C.J* We can't grant it by law. 

Col. Sydney. I desire you would please to give 
me counsel. 

L. C /. We can't do it. If you assign us any 
particular point of law, if the court think it such a 
point as may be worth the debating, you shall have 
counsel ; but if you ask for counsel for no other rea- 
son than because you ask it, we must not grant it. 
The court is bound to see that nothing be done 
against you, but what is according to the rules of 
law. I would be very loth to draw the guilt of any 
man's blood upon me. 

Col. Sydney. Has not every body counsel .? 



120 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. No. 

Col. Sydney. I have several points of law. 

L. C. J. Tell us them. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, will you oblige me, that 
am an ignorant man, and confess myself so, upon 
hearing my indictment for things I know not of, a 
long thing, presently to raise a point of law. 

L. C. J. 'Tis not we oblige you, Mr. Sydney ; 
'tis the law obliges you. We are the ministers of 
the law. 'Tis the law says, we are not to allow you 
counsel without making your objections, that the 
court may understand whether it be iit ; 'tis the law 
says, we may not allow you a copy of the indictment : 
therefore don't go away and say that we as men 
sitting here impose upon you : we sit here only to 
administer the justice of the nation. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. Sir, you will have a fort- 
night's time to consider of objections in law. 

L. C. J. If you will have it read, you shall. 
Those things that you may have by law, God forbid 
but you should have the benefit of them. 

Col. Sydney. I desire, my lord, to hear- it read 
again. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Would you have it read in Latin? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 121 

Col. Sydney. Yes, if you please, I do understand a 
little Latin. [Then the indictment teas read in Latin.~\ 

Col. Sydney. What is that statute ? 

L.C. J. When you come to your trial, Mr. At- 
torney will tell you what statute he goes upon. And 
he may give in evidence any act of Parliament that 
comprehends treason. 

Col. Sydney. Methinks he should say what stat- 
ute he goes upon. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. Sir, would you have a new 
indictment for you ? 

L. C. J. He must take notice of his trial this day 
fortnight. Lieutenant of the Tower, you may take 
the prisoner back again. [Then the lieutenant of 
the Tower took away his prisoner. ~\ 



THE TRIAL, NOV. 21, 



Algernon Sydney, Esquire, was brought to 
the bar of the court of king's-bench by habeas cor- 
pus; and proclamation for information being made, he 
desired pen, ink, and paper, which were granted him. 
And he also desired, that two persons, viz. Mr. 
Wynn and Mr. Gibbs, might write for him, which 
was also allowed by the court. 

vol. i. o^ 



122 THE TRIAL OF 

Col. Sydney. My lord, when I was last here be- 
fore your lordship, I did desire a copy of my indict- 
ment, and I thought the law did allow it me. But 
being in an hurry, carried first to a tavern, then led 
through soldiers, and surprized absolutely, I could 
not give that reason why I thought the law allowed 
me a copy. My lord, I was denied a copy, and 
thereby I was deprived of the benefit of a special plea 
I designed to have put in. This would have been a 
great help to your lordship, and to me ; the denial 
of which hath been a great prejudice. Now, my 
lord, that which I thought was law then, I think I 
can give a better testimony that 'tis so now, upon 
the statute of 46 E. 3, wherein 'tis expressed, that 
tout partes <8f tout ge?its, that is, all people shall have 
a copy of every record ; and it enumerates several 
matters, as well that against the king as other people. 
This is a general law still in force. My lord Straf- 
ford had a copy, and my lord Stafford, and the lords 
in the Tower, had copies of their indictments : and, 
under favour, I think it was never more necessary 
than to me, there never having been, perhaps, a 
charge so long, and so confused. Now, my lord, I 
have a copy transcribed of this statute. [Shewing a 
paper.'] 

L.C. J. We remember the law very well. Mr. 
Sydney did move for a copy of the indictment, and 
the court denied him then, and so shall now. And 
yet all this while we shall deny you nothing that is 
law. You shall have the right that becomes a sub- 
ject in your condition. And we must tell you, that 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 123 

notwithstanding all that case, we ought not to have 
given you so much favour (perhaps in strictness) as 
we did. And because you did particularly take no- 
tice of the case of Sir Henry Vane last time, I will 
shew you the court did indulge more to you, than 
was done to that person. In Sir Henry Vane's case, 
by the opinion of all the judges it was declared, that 
no copy ought to be given, neither of the whole, nor 
any part of the indictment, except they shew matter 
of law. But your counsel, since you went away, 
moved for the copy of the indictment ; and, to satisfy 
them, I directed the case that you took notice of to 
be read in the court. And I thought they had been 
sufficiently satisfied. You had the indictment read 
to you in Latin, which was denied in the case of Sir 
Henry Vane. And there is a later case, known to 
most persons here. By the opinion of all the judges 
of England, a copy of the indictment was denied to 
my lord Russel. Therefore arraign him upon the 
indictment. We must not spend our time in dis- 
courses to captivate the people. 

Col. Sydney.. Is not this a good law, my lord X 
[Holding oat a paper. 2 

L. C. J. You have the rule of the court. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. Any thing the law will allow 
you, you shall have : but I am sure, if you did ad- 
vise with your counsel, they must tell you the same 
thing. 



124 THE TRIAL OF 

So the clerk of the crown called the jury; and, 
after several challenges, the names of the jury were 
as follow : 

THE JURY. 

John Amger, Josias Clerke, 

Richard White, George Glisby, 

William Linn, Nicholas Baxter, 

Lawrence Wood, William Reeves, 

Adam Andrews, William Grove, 

Emery Arguise, John Burt. 

L. C. J. Look you, gentlemen of the jury : there 
are some gentlemen at the bar, as we are informed, 
are apt to whisper the jury; 'tis no part of their 
duty, nay, 'tis against their duty : and therefore, gen- 
tlemen, if you hear any of them by you, that offer 
to whisper, or make comments in this cause, as you 
are upon your oaths, and I doubt not will do your 
duty between the king and the prisoner; so I expect, 
if you hear the counsel say any thing, you will in- 
form the court. Let us have no remarks, but a fair 
trial, in God's name. 

Clerk of the Crown. You that are sworn, look 
upon the prisoner and hearken to his cause. He 
stands indicted by the name of Algernon Sydney of, 
&c. as in the indictment. Your charge is to in- 
quire, &c. \Then proclamation for evidence zvas 
made."] 

Mr. Dolben. May it please your lordship, and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 125 

you gentlemen that are sworn. This is an indictment 
of high treason preferred against Algernon Sydney, 
the prisoner at the bar. The indictment sets forth, 
That he, as a false traitor against our most illustrious 
prince Charles the Second, his natural lord, not hav- 
ing the fear of God in his heart, &c. on the thirtieth 
of June, in the thirty-fifth year of the king, and divers 
other days and times, as well before as after, in the 
parish of St. Giles in the Fields, in the county of 
Middlesex, traitorously, with divers traitors un- 
known, did conspire the death of the king, and to 
levy war within this kingdom. And to complete 
these traitorous purposes did then and there mali- 
ciously, advisedly, and traitorously, send one Aaron 
Smith into Scotland, to excite some ill-disposed per- 
sons of that kingdom to come into this, and to con- 
sult with the said Algernon Sydney, and other trai- 
tors, of and upon assistance from the kingdom of 
Scotland, to carry on those designs. And the in- 
dictment sets forth further, that to persuade the peo- 
ple of England it was lawful to raise rebellion, the 
said Algernon Sydney did cause to be written a false, 
seditious libel, in which is contained these English 
words, " The power originally in the people of Eng- 
land is delegated unto the Parliament. The king is 
subject to the law of God, as he is a man ; to the 
people that makes him a king, inasmuch as he is a 
king : the law sets a measure unto that subjection," 
&c. as in the indictment. This is laid to be 
against the duty of his allegiance, against the peace 
of the king, his crown and dignity, and against the 
form of the statute in that case made and provided. 



125 THE TRIAL OF 

If we prove him guilty, we doubt not but you will 
Slid it. 

Mr. Att. Gen, My lord, and you gentlemen of 
the jury, the prisoner at the bar stands indicted of the 
highest crimes, the conspiring the death of the king, 
and the overthrow of the English monarchy. Gen- 
tlemen, we shall use this method in our evidence. 
We shall shew by many witnesses, that there was a 
design of raising and making a rebellion within this 
kingdom. For, gentlemen, you must take notice, 
and I think there is no Englishman but does believe, 
that for several years last past a design was laid, and 
for that purpose several secret insinuations were 
made use of, and public libels spread abroad, to 
persuade the people that the king was introducing 
arbitrary power, that he subverted all their rights, 
liberties, properties, and whatever was dear to them. 
They endeavoured to make the world believe the 
king was a papist. And when, gentlemen, by such 
stratagems they had worked upon many incautious 
persons, when they thought they had gotten a suffi- 
cient party, then there was a design of an open 
rising; for they thought all things were ripened: and 
that was to be in several parts of the kingdom. Some 
persons, to effect this design, were for a present as- 
sassination of the king. Others would do it in a 
more fair and genteel way ; they thought it below 
persons of that great quality as the prisoner is, and 
therefore were for doing it by open force. 

When we have given that general evidence, we 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 121 

shall then come to shew you what share and part the 
prisoner had in this design. For certainly he was 
looked upon as a very eminent person, whose educa- 
tion abroad, and former practices at home, had ren- 
dered him fit to advise and proceed in such affairs. 
We shall prove, when these matters were ripe, this 
gentleman was of the council of state, of the six that 
were to manage this matter of the rising. We shall 
shew the several consultations they held ; one at Mr. 
Hambden's house, another at the house of my lord 
Russel. There we shall acquaint you what debates 
they had, for they acted like very subtle men, and 
there they debated, whether the rising should be first 
in the country, or city, or both together. They 
came to a resolution it should be in both places at 
once. Then when they had asserted that point, they 
come to consider the time of rising ; and upon that 
they thought fit to call in aid from Scotland first ; 
and that was this gentleman's particular province : 
for he, being a man of great secrecy, was to send an 
emissary into that kingdom, and invite some persons 
over to treat with them about it. We shall prove 
that an emissary was sent, and this gentleman gave 
him a considerable sum to bear his charges. We 
shall prove that several Scotch gentlemen, in pursu- 
ance of this resolve, came here to treat with this great 
council of state, about this affair: and shall make it- 
appear to you, that as soon as ever the least discov- 
ery of this plot was, these persons concealed them- 
selves and withdrew, as the rest of the plotters that 
have fled from justice. 



128 THE TRIAL OF 

Gentlemen, this was not enough for this gentle- 
man, to consult on these several passages : but to 
demonstrate to the world that his head and heart was 
intire in this service, and that he might carry it on 
the more effectually, he was at this very time, when 
this emissary was gone into Scotland, preparing a 
most seditious and traitorous libel : we instance in 
some particular words of it; but we shall shew you, 
that the whole design of this treatise is to persuade 
the people of England, that it is lawful, nay, that 
they have a right, to set aside their prince, in case it 
appear to them that he hath broken the trust laid 
upon him by the people. Gentlemen, he does use 
in that treatise several arguments drawn from the 
most rebellious times that ever were in England, 
from the late rebellion (I must needs use that word 
notwithstanding the act of oblivion, when a gentle- 
man shall now attempt to do those things for which 
he was pardoned then) and from other kingdoms 
where rebellion hath been prosperous against princes. 
Then he falls to reasoning, and uses great reason in 
the case, that all the power of the prince is originally 
in the people; and applies that discourse, that the 
power of the king was derived from the people, upon 
trust ; and that they had already declared the king 
had invaded their rights : and therefore he comes to 
argue, they might resume that original power they 
had conferred. And he tells the king, that is no 
hard condition ; if he thinks it so , he should lay down 
his crown; if not, he threatens the condition would 
be exacted, or otherwise should be revenged by those 
he had betrayed : and who but this gentleman and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 129 

his confederates, that thought himself not only able 
to govern this nation, but many monarchies, should 
call him to account for it ? For he lays down this 
principle, That though all the people do rise against 
their prince, it is no rebellion. The whole book is 
an argument for the people to rise in arms, and vin- 
dicate their wrongs* He lays it down, " That the 
king has no authority to dissolve the Parliament ; 
but 'tis apparent the king hath dissolved many; 
therefore he hath broken his trust, and invaded our 
rights.'' And at last concludes with that passage 
laid in the indictment, " We may therefore shake 
off our yoke ; for 'tis not a yoke we submitted to, 
but a yoke by tyranny, that must be the meaning of 
it they have imposed on us." 

Gentlemen, if we prove all these matters to you, I 
doubt not you will do right to the king and king- 
dom, and shew your abhorrence of those republican 
principles; which, if put in practice, will not only 
destroy the king, but the best monarchy in the world. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. [Heneage Finch, Esq.] Pray call 
Mr. West* [Who appeared.] 

Col. Sydney. I pray one word, my lord, before 
Mr. West be sworn. I have heard, my lord, Mr. 
West hath confessed many treasons, and I desire to 
know whether he is pardoned, or no. 

L. C. J. I don't know that, 

VOL. I. R 



130 THE TRIAL OF 

Col. Sydney. My lord, how can he be a witness 
then? 

L. C. /. Swear him, for I know no legal objec- 
tion against him. He was a good witness in my lord 
Russel's trial. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, if another did not except 
against him, 'tis nothing to me. 

Mr. North. Pray give an account to the court 
of what you know of a general insurrection intended 
in England. 

Col. Sydney. What he knows concerning me. 

L. C. J. We will take care of that, that no evi- 
dence be given but what ought to be. 

Col. Sydney. Is it ordinary that he should say any 
thing, unless it be to me and my indictment ? 

L. C. J. Mr. Sydney, you remember in all the 
trials about the late Popish plot, how there was first a 
general account given of the plot in Coleman's trial, 
and so in Plunket's, and others ; I don't doubt but 
you remember it. And Sir William Jones, against 
whose judgment I believe you won't object, was at- 
torney at that time. 

Mr. North. Mr. West, what do you know of the 
general insurrection lately designed ? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 131 

Mr. West. My lord, I have had the honour to 
know Colonel Sydney several years; but I don't re- 
member that I ever saw him from the time I came 
acquainted with any part of the conspiracy, till the 
discovery that was at the council. 

Mr. No7*th. Pray give an account of what you 
know of the plot in general. 

Mr. West. My lord, in October last, captain 
Walcot came to me, and told me that my lord 
Shaftesbury had designed an insurrection in Novem- 
ber. I used some arguments to dissuade him from 
it* But a little afterwards he came and told me the 
thing was wholly disappointed ; and then it went off, 
and my lord Shaftesbury went for Holland. Colonel 
Rumsey afterwards, about Christmas, said there were 
some lords and gentlemen intended to make an in- 
surrection: the persons were the duke of Mon- 
mouth, my lord of Essex, my lord Howard, my lord 
Russel, the prisoner at the bar, and Mr. Hambden, 
junior. After some time he told me they had altered 
their measures, and were resolved not to venture 
upon an insurrection in England, till they had a con- 
currency in Scotland. Afterwards, I was not privy 
to any thing else, but what I had the report of from 
Mr. Nelthorp and Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Nelthorp 
told me the prisoner had said 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I am very unwilling to 
interrupt the gentleman.... 



t\ 



132 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. You must not interrupt the witness. 
Go on, sir. 

Mr. West. Mr. Nelthorp told me, the prisoner 
at the bar had sent Aaron Smith into Scotland, and 
had given him a sum of money to bear his charges, 
and sent letters to some Scotch gentlemen to invite 
them to town. The letter bore a cant of settling 
some business in Carolina; but the business was 
coming up about the insurrection. After this Mr. 
Smith returned, and some Scotch gentlemen with 
him ; and soon after Mr. Ferguson gave an account 
of that affair, and said, the Scots proposed, if they 
might have thirty thousand pounds in ready money, 
they would undertake to make an insurrection in 
Scotland without the concurrence of England. He 
said this proposal was agreed to, and money would 
soon be ready ; and he said, that Sheppard would re- 
turn the money ; that the arms were ready bought, 
and my lord of Argyll would go into Scotland, and 
head the Scots. He told me when things were thus 
settled, some difference arose about raising the mo- 
ney; and at last he told me, my lord Grey did offer 
to raise ten thousand pounds out of his own estate, if 
the rest would pay their proportion. Then the Scots 
came down to less ; but that would not be complied 
with. The places for rising were Bristol, Taunton, 
York, Chester, Exeter, London, That there had 
been some debates whether they should begin at 
London, or the other places ; and at last it was re- 
solved, they should begin at London with the rest of 
the places,. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 133 

My lord, this was the account I had of the matter 
in general, of Mr, Ferguson ; but he said they were 
disappointed. Afterwards he told me, the prisoner 
at the bar and Major Wildman were very instru- 
mental in working of it off, because they could not 
agree upon the declaration to be made upon the in- 
surrection. The English were for a commonwealth ; 
but the Scotch gentlemen answered fairly, it might 
come to it in time, but the noblemen there would 
not agree to it at present. As to the prisoner in par- 
ticular, I know nothing, and did never speak with 
him till since the discovery. 

Mr. Att. Gm. Colonel Rumsey. \_Sivorn.'] 

Mr. North. Pray, sir, will you give the court an 
account of what you know of any insurrection in- 
tended, and how they designed to carry it on ? 

Col. Rumsey. My lord, the latter end of October, 
or beginning of November, I was desired by my lord 
Shaftesbury to go to Mr. Sheppard's, to know of the 
gentlemen that were met there, what was done about 
the rising intended at Taunton : and I had their an- 
swer, that Mr, Trenchard had failed them, and that 
it must cease for that time, That was all at that time, 

Mr. Sol. Gen. What else do you know of any 
insurrection afterwards ? 

Col. Rumsey. After that, we had several meetings 
at Mr ; West's chamber, where we had divided the 



134 T.HE TRIAL OF 

city into twenty parts, and seven parts Mr. Good- 
enough had brought an account of; the other thir- 
teen he had said nothing of; for he had not spoke 
with those that were to tell him how many men they 
would afford. There was there captain Walcot, 
Mr. West, the two Goodenoughs, Mr. Borne, Mr. 
Wade, and myself. 

L. C. J. What was the result of those debates ? 

Col. Rumsey. To see what number of men they 
could produce in the city for the insurrection. 

L. C.J. Was there a rising designed ? 

Col. Rumsey. Yes. 

L. C. J. And did these people meet ? 

Col. Rumsey. There was no time set. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. When was the meeting ? 

Col. Rumsey. There were several meetings in 
March, and April, and May. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. After the meeting at Mr. Shep- 
pard's ? 

Col. Rumsey. Yes, a great while. It ceased, I 
think, six weeks, or three months. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 135 

L. C. /. Who did you meet with at Mr. Shep- 
pard's ? 

Col. Rumsey. There was the duke of Monmouth, 
my lord Grey, my lord Russel, Sir Thomas Arm- 
strong, Mr. Ferguson, and Mr. Sheppard. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. Who did you expect should head 
this army ? 

Col. Rumsey. That was never said any thing of. 

Mr. Alt. Gen. Who were to manage the rising? 

Col. Rumsey. We that met there. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Had you no expectation of great 
men? 

Col. Rumsey. * Mr. West told me, and Mr. 
Goodenough, that there was a council, which were 
the duke of Monmouth, my lord Essex, my lord 

* The witnesses of the other parts of the plot were now 
brought out again to make a shew ; for they knew nothing of 
Sydney. Only they said, that they had heard of a council of 
six, and that he was one of them. Yet even in that they con- 
tradicted one another; Rumsey swearing that he had it from 
West, and West swearing that he had it from him ; which 
was not observed till the trial came out. If it had been ob- 
served sooner, perhaps Jeffreys would have ordered it to be 
struck out; as he did all that Sydney had objected upon the 
point of the jury, because they were not freeholders. 

Burnet's Hist, of his own Times, v. i. p. 57 i» 



136 TH£ TRIAL OF 

Howard, Colonel Sydney, Mr. Hambden, and my 
lord Russel : there were six. 

L. C. J. What did he tell you of them six ? 

Col. Rumsey. He told me they were managing a 
business with Scotland. 

L. C. J. A business? pray speak plain, tell all 
you know. 

Col Rumsey* For the insurrection. 

L. C. J. *, Say so then ; we know nothing of the 
business you were about. 

Col. Rumsey. My lord, Mr. West had that dis-* 
course with my lord Howard, I never had; he is 
more fit to speak to that, than me. 

L. C. J. Speak your own knowledge, and no 
more. 

Mr. Jones. After the death of my lord Shaftes-' 
bury, who were the managers, and were to carry 
it on? 

Col. Rumsey. I told you Mr. West and Mr. Good- 
enough did tell me the duke of Monmouth, my lord 
Essex....... 

Mr. Att. Gen. He told you so before. Do you 
know there was an insurrection then intended? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 137 

Col. Rnmsey. Yes, because we met towards the 
management of it, the company that met at Mr. 
West's chamber, and other places. 

Mr. Att. Gen. What discourse had you with 
Mr. Ferguson about it? 

Col. Rnmsey. None about those gentlemen. 

Mr. North. The next thing we shall shew shall 
be, that the Scotchmen came to town. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I must ever put you in 
mind, whether it be ordinary to examine men upon 
indictments of treason concerning me that I never 
saw, nor heard of in my life. 

L. C. J. I tell you, all this evidence does not 
affect you, and I tell the jury so. 

Col. Sydney. But it prepossesses the jury. [Mr. 
Keiling called and sworn.~\ 

Mr. Att. Gen. I ask you in general, what you 
know of the rising to have been last spring? 

Mr. Keiling. My lord, it was some time last 
summer Mr. Goodenough came to me, and brought 
me three papers numbered on the back side. I asked 
him to what end he delivered them me? He told me, 
one was for myself, and I was to deliver the other 
two to whom I could trust in the two divisions. I 
vol. i. s 



138 THE TRIAL ©? 

asked him what was the design ? he said, To raise 
men: says I, Do you design a general insurrection? 
he said, If he did not, if the king was taken off, this 
would do well ; for then people would know how to 
have recourse to a formidable body. And I have 
heard him say, that Colonel Sydney, whom I don't 
know, had a considerable part in the management of 
that affair, 

Mr. Alt. Gen. We charge him with conspiring, 
and there must be confederates in the case. Now 
then we come to the prisoner, we will call my lord 
Howard, that was one of the persons that did consult. 
[The lord Howard sworn.'] 

Mr. Aft. Gen. Pray acquaint my lord and the 
jury of your knowledge of what transactions there 
have been with the prisoner about this affair of the 
general rising. 

Lord Howard. Truly, my lord, in the entering 
of the evidence I am about to give, I cannot but ob- 
serve what a natural uniformity there is in truth. For 
the gentlemen that have been before, have so exactly 
instanced, in every particular, with what I have to 
say, that two tallies could not more exactly fall into 
one another, though I confess I had not seen their 
faces, till the plot brake out, for some months before. 

My lord, and gentlemen of the jury, about the 
middle of January last, it was considered by some of 
us that met together, that it was very necessary and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 139 

expedient to an enterprise that had been long m hand* 
and fallen flat then, that it should be revived by some 
consult or cabal, that should be set up to give life to 
it, and governance to the motions of it. The first 
(for aught I know) movers of this, were the duke of 
Monmouth, the gentleman at the bar, and myself: 
and there we did agree, that we should bethink our- 
selves of some few; we were willing it should not 
exceed five, at the most seven. This agreement bet- 
ing at first between us three ; I remember the duke 
of Monmouth undertook to engage my lord Russel 
and my lord Salisbury ; and this gentleman, Colonel 
Sydney, for my lord of Essex and Mr. Hambden ; 
and these being put together, did presently constU 
tute a little cabal of as great a number as was in*, 
tended. This being settled among them, it was 
within a few days after, I can't certainly tell when, 
but between the middle and latter end of January, 
that I was told, that the persons had agreed to enter 
into this conjunction of counsels ; and, in order to 
that, they had appointed a meeting at Mr.. Hamb- 
den's house, to which I was invited. This in time 
was between the middle and latter end of January, 
but I can't tell exactly. When we came there, there 
was all those gentlemen I before named, the duke of 
Monmouth, my lord Essex, my lord Russel, Colonel 
Sydney, Mr. Hambden, and myself. It was at Mr. 
Hambden's house, which ranges on the same row 
with Southampton-house : and being met, Mr. Hamb- 
den, I suppose, did think it most properly belonged 
to him to take upon him the part, as it were, to open 
the sessions; that was, to give us a little account of 



140 THE TRIAL OF 

the reason, end, and intention of that meeting : in 
which discourse, he took occasion to recapitulate 
some design, that had been before chiefly carried on 
by my lord Shaftesbury, before this time dead ; and 
also took notice of the ready diposition and inclina- 
tion of the minds of men to go on with it ; and did 
give one instance of his judgment of it, that it being 
a design communicated to so many, it had not been 
so much as revealed, or a murmur or whisper gone 
about it: from whence he took occasion to tell us, 
that it was absolutely necessary for the future there 
should be some council, that should be as a spring a 
little to guide and govern the motions of the rest; 
for that there were divers things to be taken care of, 
which, if not taken care of by particular persons, 
would all miscarry. This was the substance of the 
prologue and introduction he made. From hence 
he made a transition to some particular things that he 
thought were most principally to be taken care of. 
And though it is impossible for me to remember the 
order and method in which we discoursed, or who 
said this or that ; but that which the sense of all re- 
sulted to was this, That since we did not come pre- 
pared for it, we should consider what were the things 
that would hereafter challenge our particular care; 
that was the time w T hen, the places where, and per- 
sons by whom, these things should be carried on. 
This led into some particular discourse concerning 
some of these heads : for the time, that it should be 
shortly, lest the minds of men should chill : and then 
as to the place where, whether in the city or coun- 
try > or both jointly; in all these, some opinions were 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 141 

given, but not settled to any resolution, but they 
were committed to our thoughts to be digested after- 
wards. But these being the things that every one 
was to take upon his thoughts, there was this pre- 
requisite to the undertaking, and that was, to con- 
sider what magazines were to be got : and that led 
to another particular, which was, with what they 
should be gotten, and that was money; and there- 
upon was propounded a considerable sum to be 
raised ; and, as I remember, the sum propounded by 
the duke of Monmouth was twenty-five thousand 
pounds, or thirty thousand pounds. And then it 
was considered, how it should be raised without 
drawing observation or jealousy. These are only the 
heads that were then agreed on, hereafter to be better 
considered. But the present resolution that was 
taken, was, that before any procedure was made in 
any of these things, or any advance towards the un- 
dertaking, the first thing to be considered was, how 
to make a coalition of counsels between Scotland and 
what we were doing here ; and for that purpose we 
should bethink ourselves of some fit person to be 
sent thither to unite us into one sense and care. 
This is as much as occurs to my memory upon that 
meeting. About a fortnight or three weeks, which 
I suppose carried it to the middle of February next, 
we had another meeting, and that was at Southamp- 
ton-house, at my lord Russel's, and there was every 
one of the same persons ; and when we came there, 
there happened to fall in a discourse which I know not 
how it came in, but it was a little warmly urged, and 
thought to be untimely and unseasonable ; and that 



142 THE TRIAL OF 

I remember was by Mr. Hambden, who did tell us, 
that having now united ourselves into such an under- 
taking as this was, it could not but be expected that 
it would be a question put to many of us, To what 
end all this was ? Where it was we intended to ter- 
minate? Into what we intended to resolve ? that these 
were questions he met with; and, it was probable, 
every one had or would meet with, from those per- 
sons whose assistance we expected ; and that if there 
was any thing of a personal interest designed or in- 
tended, that there were but very few of those, whose 
hearts were now with us, but would fall off : and 
therefore, since we were upon such an undertaking, 
we should resolve ourselves into such principles, as 
should put the properties and liberties of the people 
into such hands, as they should not be easily invaded 
by any that were trusted with the supreme authority 
of the land : and it was mentioned, to resolve all into 
the authority of the Parliament. This was moved 
by him, and had a little harshness to some that were 
there ; but yet upon the whole matter we generally 
consented to it, that it was nothing but a public good 
that we all intended. But then, after that, we fell to 
that which we charged ourselves with at the first 
meeting, and that was concerning sending into Scot- 
land, and of settling an understanding with my lord 
of Argyll : and, in order to this, it was necessary to 
send a messenger thither to some persons whom we 
thought were the most leading men of the interest in 
Scotland. This led us to the insisting on some par- 
ticular persons ; the gentlemen named were my lord 
Melvin, Sir John Cockram, and the Campbells ; I 



ALGERNON SYDNEY* 143 

am sure it was some of the alliance of my lord of Ar- 
gyll, and I think of the name. As soon as this was 
propounded, it was offered by this gentleman, Colo- 
nel Sydney, that he would take the care of the per- 
son ; and he had a person in his thoughts, that he 
thought a very fit man to be intrusted ; one or two, 
but one in special, and he named Aaron Smith to be 
the man, who was known to some of us, to others 
not ; I was one that did know him, and as many as 
knew him, thought him a proper person. This is 
all that occurs to me that was at the second meeting, 
and they were the only consults that I was at. 

Mr. Att. Gen. What was he to do ? 

Lord Howard. There was no particular deed for 
him, more than to carry a letter. The duke of 
Monmouth undertook to bring my lord Melvin 
hither, because he had particular dependance upon 
him, and I think some relation to his lady : but to 
Sir John Cockram there was a letter to be sent under 
the disguise of carrying on some business of the 
plantation in Carolina. This letter, I suppose, was 
writ by my lord Russel (though I know it not) for 
he was personally known to my lord Russel, and I 
don't know that he was known to any of us. About 
three weeks after this then, he was dispatched, I 
suppose. 

Mr. Att. Gen. To what purpose were the&e 
gentlemen to come up ? 



% 



144 THE TRIAL Or 

Lord Howard. These were to acquaint us how 
they found Scotland tempered, and what opportunities 
or advantages there were or might be of putting them 
into a commotion, and how men might be raised, and 
how they would fall under Argyll, and also to keep 
time and place with us. After this, I was with 
Colonel Sydney when he was going to London, and 
he did take out several guineas, I can't tell how much 
it was, I suppose they might be about sixty, and put 
them into his pocket (and set me down at his lodg- 
ing) which he said were to give Aaron Smith ; whether 
he gave it or no, I don't know ; and after that he 
was sent. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Who told you so ? 

Lord Howard. Colonel Sydney, for I was in- 
quiring of him; and he said, he had not heard of 
him in three weeks, or but once, when he was about 
Newcastle. After this, I had occasions that called 
me into the country, and there I was. Some time 
after that, I went to the Bath : and this is all the ac- 
count I can give. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. Do you know that Aaron Smith 
did go ? 

Lord Howard. I know nothing but by hearsay. 
Colonel Sydney told me he was gone, and was upon 
the road, and he heard from him about Newcastle. 

L. C /. Did you understand by the discourse 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 145 

after he was gone, that he went in pursuance of that 
debate ? 

Lord Howard, Yes, my lord, that was the whole 
end of his going. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. I think you say, that gentle- 
man (speaking of Col. Sydney) undertook to send 
him? 

Lord Howard. Yes, he did. 

L. C.J. Will you ask him any questions? 

Col. Sydney. I have no questions to ask him. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Silence.... You know the proverb. 
The next step is to shew you, my lord, that these per- 
sons came up immediately after Aaron Smith went 
down thither ; and, according to that which was said 
to be the shadow and pretence of their coming hither, 
they pretended they came about Carolina business. 
Sir Andrew Foster and Mr. Blathwaite. [Sir An-. 
drew Foster szvorn.~\ 

Mr. Att. Gen. Pray, sir, give an account what 
Scotch gentlemen came up lately. 

Sir A. Foster. My lord, about the end of the 
spring, or beginning of summer, as I remember, 
these gentlemen, Sir John Cockram, and commissary 
Monro, and the two Campbells, father and son, came 

VOL. i. x 



146 THE TRIAL OF 

up hither. I did not see the father at all, but I saw 
the son the day of the lord Russel's trial ; but the 
other two I think I saw a little before the discovery 
of the plot. 

Mr. Att. Gen. What did they pretend they came 
about ? 

Sir A. Foster. They pretended they came to 
make a purchase in Carolina, and I saw their com- 
mission from the persons said to be concerned in 
that design. 

L. C. J. Who do you speak of? 

Sir A. Foster. Sir John Cockram and commis- 
sary Monro. 

Mr. Att. Gen. As soon as the rumour came of 
the plot, what became of those gentlemen ? 

Sir A. Foster. Sir John Cockram absconded, 
v but commissary Monro never absconded, and the 
Campbells I heard were seized changing their lodg- 
ing from place to place. [Mr. Atterbury sivorn."] 

Mr. Att. Gen. Mr. Atterbury, will you give my 
}ord and the jury an account what you know of these 
Scotchmen, their absconding and lying hid. 

Mr. Atterbury. My lord, upon the latter end of 
June, or beginning of July; the beginning of July it 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 147 

was ; I was sent for into London upon a discovery of 
some Scotch gentlemen that lay about Black- Friars ; 
and when I came down there, there was the common 
sergeant, and some others, had been before me, and 
found them making an escape into a boat, 

Mr. Att. Gen. Who were they ? 

Mr. Atterbury, Sir Hugh Campbell, and Sir 
John Cockram, and one that was committed to the 
Gate-house by the council, as soon as brought thither. 

Mr. Att. Gen. We shall end here, my lord. How 
long had they been in town ? 

Mr. Atterbury. They had been in town some 
little time. 

Mr, Att. Gen. We have done with this piece of 
our evidence. Now to shew that while this emis- 
sary was in Scotland, at the same time the Colonel 
(which w T ill be another overt act of the treason) was 
writing a treasonable pamphlet, I will call you the 
witnesses. It is all of his own writing. \Sir Philip 
Lloyd sivorn.~\ 

Mr. Att. Gen. Sir Philip Lloyd, pray will you 
look upon those papers, and give my lord and the 
jury an account where you found them ? 

Sir Philip Lloyd. I had a warrant, my lord, from 
the secretary by the king and council, to seize Mr. 



148 THE TRIAL OF 

Algernon Sydney's papers; and, pursuant to it, I did 
go to his house, and such as I found there I put up. 
I found a great many upon the table, amongst which 
were these: I suppose it is where he usually writes. 
I put them in a pillow-bier I borrowed in the house, 
and that in a trunk. I desired Colonel Sydney 
would put his seal upon them, that there should be 
no mistake. He refused: so I took my seal and 
sealed up the trunk, and it was carried before me to 
Mr. Secretary Jenkins' office. When the committee 
sat, I was commanded to undo the trunk, and I did 
so, and found my own seal upon it. And I took the 
papers out of the bag I put them into before. 

L. C. J. Was Colonel Sydney present when you 
seized these papers ? 

Sir P. Lloyd. Yes. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Are these some of those papers ? 

Sir P. Lloyd. Yes, I verily believe it. 

Mr. Att. Gen. In the next place, I think we have 
some papers of his particular affairs which will prove 
his hand. Call Mr. Sheppard, Mr. Cooke, and Mr. 
Cary. 

Mr. North. Sir Philip Lloyd, when were they 
seized ? 

Sir P. Lloyd. Towards the latter end of June, 
my lord. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 149 

Jury -Man. Which June ? 

Sir P. Lloyd. Last June. \Mr. Sheppard sworn. ] 

Mr: Att. Gen. Pray will you look upon those 
writings ? {Shewing the libel.'] Are you acquainted 
with Colonel Sydney's hand ? 

Mr. Sheppard. Yes, my lord. 

Mr. Ail. Gen. Is that his hand-writing ? 

Mr. Sheppard. Yes, sir, I believe so. I believe 
all these sheets to be his hand. 

Mr. Att. Gen. How come you to be acquainted 
with his hand ? 

Mr. Sheppard. I have seen him write the in- 
dorsement upon several bills of exchange, [Mr. 
Cary sivom.~\ 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire you would please 
to consider this, that similitude of hands can be no 
evidence. 

L. C. J. Reserve yourself till anon, and make 
all the advantageous remarks you can. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Have you had any dealing with 
him? 



150 THE TRIAL OJ? 

Mr. Cary. I never saw him write to my know- 
ledge more than once in my life, but I have seen his 
indorsement upon bills, and 'tis very like that. 

L.C.f. Do you believe it is his hand, as far as 
you can guess ? 

Mr. Cary. My lord, it is like what came to me 
for his hand-writing. 

L. C. /. And you believe it to be his hand ? 

Mr. Cary. Yes. [Mr. Cooke szvorn, and the 
papers sheivn him.~\ 

L. C. /. What say you, Mr. Cooke ? 

Mr. Cooke. My lord, I did never see Colonel 
Sydney write, but I have seen several notes that 
have come to me with indorsement of his name, and 
we have paid them, and 'tis like to this. 

L. C.J. And you were never called to account 
for mispayment ? 

Mr. Cooke. No, my lord. 

Mr. Att. Gen. I pray it may be read. We will 
read as much as is necessary to prove the indict- 
ment. 

Col. Sydney. I pray it may be all read. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY, 151 

L. C. /. Mr. Attorney must have what part he 
desires read, and you shall have what part you will 
have read afterwards. 

Col. Sydney. I desire all may be read. 

Mr. Alt. Gen. Begin there.... " Secondly, There 
was no absurdity in this, because it was their own 



Clerk reads.... 11 2dly, There was no absurdity in 
this, though it was their own case, but to the con- 
trary, because it was their own case ; that is, con- 
cerning themselves only, and they had no superior. 
They only were the competent judges; they decided 
their controversies, as every man in his own family 
doth such as arise between him and his children, and 
his servants. This power hath no other restriction 
than what is put upon it by the municipal law of the 
country where any man lives ; and that hath no other 
force than as he is understood to have consented 
unto it. Thus in England every man, in a degree, 
hath a right of chastising them ; and in many places, 
even by the law of God, the master hath a power of 
life and death over his servant. It were a most ab- 
surd folly to say that a man might not put away, or 
in some cases kill, an adulterous wife, a disobedient 
son, or an unfaithful servant, because he is party and 
judge ; for the case doth admit of no other, unless he 
had abridged his own right by entering into a society 
where other rules are agreed upon, and a superior 
judge constituted: there being none such between 



152 THE TRIAL OF 

king and people, the people must needs be the judge of 
things happening between them and him, whom they 
did not constitute that he might be great, glorious, 
and rich; but that he might judge them, and fight 
their battles; or otherwise do good unto them as 
they should direct. In this sense, he that is singulis 
major, and ought to be obeyed by every man in his 
just and lawful commands tending to the public 
good, must be suffered to do nothing against it, nor 
in any respect more than the law doth allow. 

" For this reason Breton saith, that ' the king hath 
three superiors, to wit, Deum, Legem, et Parlia- 
ment;'' that is, the power originally in the people of 
England, is delegated unto the Parliament. He is 
subject unto the law of God, as he is a man ; to the 
people that makes him a king, inasmuch as he is a 
king: the law sets a measure unto that subjection, 
and the Parliament judges of the particular cases 
thereupon arising: he must be content to submit 
his interest unto theirs, since he is no more than any 
one of them, in any other respect than that he is, by 
the consent of all, raised above any other. 

" If he doth not like this condition, he may re- 
nounce the crown ; but if he receive it upon that 
condition, as all magistrates do the power they re- 
ceive, and swear to perform it, he must expect that 
the performance will be exacted, or revenge taken 
by those that he hath betrayed. 

" If this be not so, I desire to know of our author, 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 153 

how one or more men can come to be guilty of trea- 
son against the king, as lex facit id sit rex. No 
man can owe more unto him than unto any other, or 
he unto every other man, by any rule but the law ; 
and if he must not be judge in his own case, neither 
he, nor any other by power received from him, would 
ever try any man for an offence against him, or the 
law. 

" If the king, or such as he appoints, cannot judge 
him, he cannot be judged by the ways ordinarily 
known amongst us. If he, or other by authority 
from him, may judge, he is judge in his own case, 
and we fall under that which he accounts the utmost 
of all absurdities ; if a remedy be found for this, he 
must say that the king in his own case may judge 
the people, but the people must not judge the king, 
because it is theirs : that is to say, The servants en- 
tertained by the master may judge him, but the 
master must not judge the servant whom he took 
only for his own use ; the magistrate is bound by no 
oath or contract to the people that created him, but 
the people is bound to its own creature > the ma- 
gistrate. 

" This seems to be the ground of all our author's 
follies : he cannot comprehend that magistrates are 
for or by the people ; but makes this conclusion, as 
if nations were created by or for the glory or pleasure 
of magistrates : and, after such a piece of nonsense, 
it ought not to be thought strange, if he represent, 
as an absurd thing, that the headless multitude may 

VOL. I. U 



154 THE TRIAL OF 

shake off the yoke when they please. But I would 
know how the multitude comes under the yoke ; it 
is a badge of slavery. He says that the power of 
kings is for the preservation of liberty and property. 
We may therefore change or take away kings with- 
out breaking any yoke, or that is made a yoke which 
ought not to be one; the injury is therefore in 
making or imposing, and there can be none in break- 
ing it. 

" That if there be not an injury, there may per- 
haps be an inconvenience, if the headless multitude 
may shake off the yoke. I know not why the mul- 
titude should be concluded to be headless ; it is not 
always so. Moses was head of the multitude that 
went out of Egypt. Othniel led them against the 
king of Mesopotamia. Under the conduct of Phine- 
has they obtained a victory against the Midianites : 
they had the like success under Shamgar, Barak, 
Gideon, Jephthah, Samuel, Samson, and others, 
against Canaanites, Moabites, Philistines, and others. 
The multitude that opposed Saul and Ishbosheth 
had David for its head ; and the ten tribes that re- 
jected Rehoboam chose unto themselves Jeroboam. 
The Athenians rising against the Thirty tyrants had 
Tharasybulus ; those that drove from Thebes 

were conducted by Pelopidas. When the Romans 
drove out the Tarquins, they chose Brutus and Pub- 
licola ; and they destroyed the Decemviri under Ho- 
ratius and Vellerius. All the multitudes that after- 
wards revolted from them under Mauritius, Tele- 
rius, Spartanus, and others, were not headless ; and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 155 

we know of none that were, but all either found 
heads, or made them. The Germans set up Ar- 
minius ; the Britons, and others ; in latter times, 
the Castilians, that rose against Peter the Cruel, had 
the lord de Trastamare. 

" The French, when they grew weary of the cor- 
rupted races of Pharamond and Pepin, had the same 
Pepin and Hugh Capet : the Scots, when they slew 
James the Third, had his son to be their head : and 
when they deposed and imprisoned Queen Mary, the 
Earl of Murray and others supplied the want of age 
that was in her son: and in all the revolutions we 
have had in England, the people have been headed 
by the Parliament, or the nobility and gentry that 
composed it; and, when the kings failed of their 
duty, by their own authority called it. The multi- 
tude therefore is not ever headless, but doth ever 
find or create heads unto itself, as occasion doth re- 
quire ; and whether it be one man, or a few, or more, 
for a short or a longer time, we see nothing more 
regular than its motions. But they may, saith our 
author, shake off the yoke. And why may they not, 
if it prove uneasy or hurtful unto them? Why should 
not the Israelites shake off the yoke of Pharaoh, 
Jabin, Sisera, and others that oppressed them ? 

" When pride had changed Nebuchadnezzar into 
a beast, what should persuade the Assyrians not to 
drive him out among beasts, until God had restored 
unto him the heart of a man ? When Tarquin had 
turned the legal monarchy of Rome into a most 



156 THE TRIAL OF 

abominable tyranny, why should they not abolish it ? 
And when the Protestants of the Low Countries 
were so grievously oppressed by the power of Spain, 
under the proud, cruel, and savage conduct of the 
duke of Alva, why should they not make use of all 
the means that God had put into their hands for their 
deliverance ? Let any man who sees the present state 
of the provinces that then united themselves, judge 
whether it is better for them to be as they are, or in 
the condition unto which his fury would have 
reduced them, unless they had, to please him, re- 
nounced God and their religion. Our author may 
say, they ought to have suffered ; the king of Spain, 
by their resistance, lost those countries; and that 
they ought not to have been judges in their own case. 
To which I answer, That by resisting they laid the 
foundation of many churches that have produced 
multitudes of men eminent in gifts and graces ; and 
established a most glorious and happy common- 
wealth, that hath been, since its first beginning, the 
strongest pillar of the Protestant cause now in the 
world, and a place of refuge unto those who in all 
parts of Europe have been oppressed for the name of 
Christ : whereas they had slavishly, and, I may say, 
wickedly as well as foolishly, suffered themselves to 
be butchered, if they had left those empty provinces 
under the power of Antichrist, where the name of 
God is no otherwise known, than to be blasphemed. 

" If the king of Spain desired to keep his subjects, 
he should have governed them with more justice and 
mercy. When, contrary unto all laws, both human 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 157 

and divine, he seeks to destroy those he ought to 
have preserved, he can blame none but himself, if 
they deliver themselves from his tyranny : and when 
the matter is brought to that, that he must not reign, 
or they over whom he would reign must perish, the 
matter is easily decided : as if the question had been 
asked in the time of Nero and Domitian, Whether 
they should be left at liberty to destroy the best part 
of the world, as they endeavoured to do, or it should 
be rescued by their destruction? And as for the 
people's being judges in their own case, it is plain, 
they ought to be the only judges, because it is their 
own, and only concerns themselves. " 

Mr. Att. Gen. The latter end, the last sheet of 
all, h 35. 

L. C. J. The argument runs through the book, 
fixing the power in the people. 

Clerk of the Crown. "The general revolt of a 
nation from its own magistrates, can never be called 
rebellion." 

Mr. Ait. Gen. \ 37. 

Clerk of the Crown. " The power of calling and 
dissolving Parliaments is not in the king." 

Mr. Ait. Gen. So much we shall make use of; 
if the Colonel please to have any other part read, to 
explain it, he may. [ Then the sheets were shezvn to 
Colonel Sydney. .] 



158 THE TRIAL OF 

Col. Sydney. I do not know what to make of it, 
I can read it. 

L. C. J. Ay, no doubt of it, better than any man 
here. Fix on any part you have a mind to have read. 

Col. Sydney. I do not know what to say to it, to 
read it in pieces thus. 

L. C. J. I perceive you have disposed them un- 
der certain heads : to what heads will you have read ? 

Col. Sydney. My lord, let him give an account 
of it that did it. 

Mr. Att. Gen. My lord, we will not delay Co- 
lonel Sydney from entering on his defence ; only we 
have this piece of evidence to give further. One of 
his complices was my lord Russel; we will give in 
evidence his conviction. We will only ask, my lord 
Howard, was your lordship sworn as a witness at the 
trial of my lord Russel ? 

Lord Howard. Yes. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Whether or no, when you met, 
were there in those debates any reflections upon the 
king, that he had broken his duty ? 

Lord Howard. Not that I remember. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Why would you rise ? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 159 

Lord Howard. If you mean upon the misgov- 
ernment, not personally upon the king ? 

Mr. Att. Gen. Ay. 

Lord Howard. Yes, and principally and chiefly 
that, which we thought was the general disgust of 
the nation, the imposing upon the city at that time. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. That was complained of at 
that time ? 

Lord Howard. Yes, my . lord : we took it all 
along to be the chief grievance. 

L. C. J. Have you any more witnesses ? 

Mr. Att. Gen. Only the record. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. I know there is no time mispent 
to make things clear. If the jury have a mind to 
have the words read again 

L. C. J. If they have a mind, let it. [ Then Mr. 
Trinder ivas sworn, and testified it to be a true copy 
of the record, and said he examined it at Fish- 
monger* s-H all with Mr. Tanner. Then the record 
of the conviction of the lord Bussel was readJ] 

L. C. J. What will you go to next, Mr. Attor- 
ney? 






160 THE TRIAL OF 



Mr. Sol. Gen. We have done, unless the jury 
desire to have the words of the libel read again. 
\But they did not. ] 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire to know upon 
what statute I am indicted. 

Mr. Att. Gen. My lord, I will give as plain an 
answer; you are indicted upon the old statute of 
25 E. 3. 

Col. Sydney. Then I desire to know upon what 
branch of that statute. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Why, I will acquaint you : 'tis 
upon the first branch of that statute, for conspiring 
and compassing the death of the king. 

Col. Sydney. Then I conceive, what does not 
come within that doesjiot touch me. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Make what inferences you please, 
Colonel, we will answer you. 

Col. Sydney* I desire to know what the witnesses 
have sworn against me upon that point. 

Mr. Att. Gen. Go on, you have heard the wit- 
nesses as well as we. 

L. C. J. He says you are indicted upon the 
statute of 25 E. 3. which statute makes ithightrea- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 161 

son to conspire the death of the king ; and the overt 
act is sufficiently set forth in the indictment ; now 
the question is, whether 'tis proved ? 

Col. Sydney. They have proved a paper found 
in my study, of Caligula and Nero ; that is com- 
passing the death of the king, is it ? 

L. C. J. That I shall tell the jury. The point 
in law you are to take from the court, gentlemen : 
whether there be fact sufficient, that is your duty to 
consider. 

Col. Sydney. I say, my lord, that since I am in- 
dicted upon that statute, I am not to take notice of 
any other. I am indicted for conspiring the death 
of the king, because such a paper is found in my 
house. Under favour, I think that can be nothing 
at all to me ; for though Sir Philip Lloyd did ask 
me, whether I would put my seal to it, he did not 
ask me till he had been in my closet, and I knew 
not what he had put in ; and so I told him I would 
not do it. Then come these gentlemen upon simil- 
itude of hands. My lord, we know what similitude 
of hands is in this age. One told me within these 
two days, that one came to him, and offered him to 
counterfeit any hand he should shew him in half an 
hour. So then, my lord, I have nothing to say to 
these papers. Then for point of witness, I cannot 
be indicted, much less tried or condemned, on 25 
E. 3. for by that act there must be two witnesses to 
that very branch unto which the treason does relate, 

vol. i. w 



162 THE TRIAL OF 

which must be distinguished. For the levying of 
war, and conspiring the death of the king, are two 
distinct things ; distinct in nature and reason, and so 
distinguished in the statute. And therefore the con- 
spiring the death of the king is treason, and the other 
not. 1 E. 6. 12. 5 E. 6. 11. does expressly say, 
there must be two witnesses to either of these acts. 
Now here is my lord Howard (I have enough to say 
of him by and by) 'tis he only who speaks of six 
men, whom he calls a select council, and yet selected 
by no man in the world. I desire to know who se- 
lected my lord Howard ? Who selected me ? If they 
were selected by no body, 'tis a bull to say they 
were a select council. If they were not selected, but 
erected themselves into a cabal, then they have either 
confidence in one another, or find they are nearly 
equally able to assist in the design. Here is nothing 
of all this : these six men were strangers to one 
another. For my own part, I never spake with the 
duke of Monmouth above three times in my life, 
and one time was when my lord Howard brought 
him to my house and cozened us both. He told the 
duke I invited him, and he told me the duke invited 
himself; and neither of them was true. Now, that 
such men as these are, noj: knowing hardly one 
another, should presently fall into a great and inti- 
mate friendship, and trust and management of such 
businesses as these are, is a thing utterly improbable, 
unless they were mad. Now I do find in my lord 
Howard's deposition against my lord Russel, that 
they were in prosecution of my lord Shaftesbury's 
design ; and yet he acknowledges the duke of Mon- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 163 

mouth said he was mad, and he himself said so too. 
Now that they should join with four more in the 
prosecution of the design of a madman, they must 
be mad too. Now whether my lord Howard would 
have you think he was mad, because a madman can- 
not be guilty of treason, I cannot tell. My lord 
Howard, in his last deposition at my lord Russel's 
trial, fixes the two meetings, one about the middle 
of January, the other ten days after ; now he fixes 
one to be the latter end of January, the other the 
middle of February. Then he makes it to be the 
prosecution of my lord Shaftesbu^'s design. I do 
not find that any one there had any thing to do with 
my lord Shaftesbury : for my part I had not ; I had 
not seen his face in two years. Then, my lord, that 
I go upon is, whatever my lord Howard is, here is 
but one witness. The law of God and the law of 
man, understood and taken by all men, does require 
two witnesses * : Moses says so ; so the apostles 

* " Mr, Pelham. I did presume yesterckiy to tell you, that 
Mr. Algernon Sydney did stand upon it as his natural right, 
that they could not proceed against him, there being but one 
witness. I did not bring his case as parallel to this, nor think 
that his authority should influence you. But he was a man 
that had that love for liberty and the good of his country, that 
he would not have said so, even to. save his own life, if he had 
thought it inconsistent with either of them. But I have looked 
upon his trial since, and. there he does declare, ' That the being 
condemned by two witnesses is the law of God and the law of 
man, the just law that is observed by all men, and in all places/ 
'Tis certain he reached even by these words the power of Par- 
liament : when I do say power, I do not mean, but that when 
such a law is passed, all are bound to obey it ; but in some 



164 THE TRIAL OF 

the same after him ; and Christ says the same, that 
every matter is to be established by two ivitnesses. 
There ought to be two witnesses to the same thing. 
Now for one to come and tell a tale of a tub, of an im- 
aginary council ; and another of a libel, a paper writ- 
ten nobody knows when, is such a thing, you can 
never go over it. But if the law of God be, that 
there must be two witnesses to the same fact, there 
is an end of this matter. And under the j udicial law, 
the penalty would be in this case, to put a man to 
death. Now here there are but two things, which if 
allowed of, nobody will be safe for perjury. The 
one is, to suffer men to give their testimony, one to 
one thing, and another to another, that the fraud can- 
not be discovered ; and the other is, to take away the 
punisment. Now the punishment is taken away in 
some measure ; and do but take away the other 
point whereby the fraud cannot be discovered, and 
then there is no defence can be made. That both 
witnesses should be to the same point, see the story 
of Susanna. Two elders testified they saw her in 
the act of adultery : they were carrying of her to her 
death : both of them said the same thing : until they 
were taken asunder and examined, the fraud was not 
discovered ; and then one said, she was under a tree 
of the right hand, and the other, under a tree on the 
left ; and she escaped, and they were punished. But 
now if you apply it to several facts, my lord Howard 

sense, we may say, You cannot do what is not just for you to 
do : you can do but what is just and suitable to the trust re- 
posed in you." 

The proceedings against Sir John Fenwick, bart. 8cc. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 165 

may say what he pleases, and if another shall come 
with a supplemental proof, no justice can be had. 
But, my lord, I desire this, if there be two witnesses 
to prove the conspiracy, and in that there were those 
matters done that are treason, I must answer to it ; 
but if there be not, I presume, I need say nothing 
to it. If you do not allow it me, I desire counsel to 
argue it. 

L. C. /. That is a point of fact, whether there 
be two witnesses ? I tell you beforehand, one wit- 
ness is not sufficient. 

Col. Sydney. Why then there is my lord How- 
ard, and never another. 

L. C. J. Nay, do not make those inferences. I 
will tell the jury, if there be not two witnesses, as the 
law requires in this case, they ought to acquit you. 

Col. Sydney. You confound me, I cannot stir. 
You talk of a conspiracy ; what is a conspiracy to 
kill the king ? Is there any more witnesses than one 
for levying of war ? 

/,. C. J. Pray do not deceive yourself. You 
must not think the court and you intend to enter 
into a dialogue. Answer to the fact : if there be not 
sufficient fact, the jury will acquit you. Make what 
answer you can to it. 

Col. Sydney. Then I say, there being but one 
witness, I am not to answer to it at all. 



166 THZ TRIAL OF 

L.C. J. If you rely upon that, we will direct 
the jury presently. 

Col. Sydney. Then for levying war, what does 
any one say ? My lord Howard, let him, if he please, 
reconcile what he hath said now, with what he said at 
my lord Russel's trial. There he said, he said all 
he could ; and now he has got I do not know how 
many things that were never spoken of there. I ap- 
peal to the court, whether he did then speak one 
word of that that he now says of Mr. Hambden. He 
sets forth his evidence very rhetorically, but it does 
not become a witness ; for he is only to tell what 
is done and said: but he does not tell what was 
done and said. He says they took upon them to 
consider, but does not say what one man said, or one 
man resolved, much less what I did. My lord, if 
these things are not to be distinguished, but shall be 
jumbled all up together, I confess I do not know 
what to say. 

L. C. J. Take what liberty you please. If you 
will make no defence, then we will direct the jury 
presently. We will direct them in the law, and re- 
collect matter of facts as well as we can. 

Col. Sydney. Why then, my lord, I desire the 
law may be reserved to me ; I desire I may have coun- 
sel to that point, of there being but one witness. 

L. C. J. That is a point of fact. If you can give 
any testimony to disparage the witness, do it. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 167 

Col. Sydney. I have a great deal to that* 

L. C. /. Go on to it then. 

Col. Sydney. Then, my lord, was there a war 
levied ? or was it prevented ? Why then, if it be 
prevented, 'tis not levied; if it be not levied, 'tis not 
within the statute : so this is nothing to me. 

L. C. J. The court will have patience to hear 
you ; but at the same time I think 'tis my duty to 
advertise you, that this is but mispending of your 
time. If you can answer the fact, or if you have any 
mind to put any disparagement upon the witnesses, 
that they are not persons to be believed, do it, but 
do not ask us questions this way or t'other. 

Col. Sydney. I have this to say concerning my 
lord Howard : he hath accused himself of divers trea- 
sons, and I do not hear that he has his pardon of 
any : he is under the terror of those treasons, and 
the punishment for them : he hath shewn himself to 
be under that terror; he hath said, that he could not 
get his pardon until he had done some other jobs, 
till he was past this drudgery of swearing: that is, 
my lord, that he having incurred the penalty of high 
treason, he would get his own indemnity by destroy- 
ing others. This, by the law of God and man, I 
think, destroys a man's testimony. Besides, my 
lord, he is my debtor; he owes me a considerable 
sum of money I lent him in time of his great neces- 
sity : he made some covenants with me for the pay- 



168 THE TRIAL OF 

ment . of that money, which he hath broken ; and 
when his mortgage was forfeited, and I should take 
the advantage the law gives me, he finds out a way 
to have me laid up in the Tower. He is a very 
subtle man. At my lord Russel's trial, he carried 
his knife, he said, between the paring and the apple ; 
and so this is a point of great nicety and cunning, at 
one time to get his own pardon, and at the same time 
to save his money. Another thing, my lord, is, 
when I was prisoner, he comes to my house, and 
speaks with my servant, and says, how sorry he was 
that I should be brought in danger upon this account 
of the plot ; and there he did, in the presence of 
God, with hands and eyes uplifted to heaven, swear, 
he did not believe any plot, and that it was but a 
sham ; and that he was confident if I had known any 
thing, I would have told it him. He hath said some- 
what of this before ; I have several witnesses to 
prove both. He was desirous to go further; and he 
would not only pay my debt by his testimony 
against me, but he would have got my plate and 
other goods in my hands, into his hands ; and he de- 
sired my men, as a place of trust, to put them into 
his hands ; and the next news was, that there w r as a 
warrant against my lord Russel and me. But then, 
my lord, he made other affirmations in the same 
presence of God, that I was innocent in his opinion ; 
and he was confident of it, for if he had known any 
thing of it, he would have told it. Now I know, in 
my lord Russel's case, there was Dr. Burnet said 
something like it. And when he came to answer it, 
he said he was to face it out, and make the best of it 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 169 

he could. Now he did face it out bravely against 
God, but he was very timorous of man. So that, 
my lord, he does say at the same time at my lord 
Russel's trial, upon his oath, that he did believe 
that the religious obligation of an oath did not con- 
sist in the formality of applying it to the place, &x. 
but in calling God to witness. So that when he did 
call God to witness, before Dr. Burnet and my ser- 
vant, and others, this is not consistent with the oath 
he has taken here, as the gentleman said at my lord 
Russel's trial, unless he has one soul in court, and 
had another at my house : these things are inconsist- 
ent and cannot be true ; and if he swear both, under 
the religion of an oath, he swears himself perjured. 
Then, my lord, he talks of Aaron Smith : what have 
I to do with Aaron Smith ? He says I sent him. 
My lord, there is nobody else speaks a word of it. 
Then, by a strange kind of construction and ima- 
gination, they will have it, that some papers here, 
which are said to be found in my study, have rela- 
tion to this plot, as they call it ; I know of none, nor 
am in none. Now, my lord, I am not to give an ac- 
count of these papers ; I do not think they are before 
you, for there is nothing but the similitude of hands 
offered for proof. There is the like case of my lady 
Carr, some few years ago : she was indicted of per- 
jury, and, as evidence against her, some letters of 
hers were produced, that were contrary to what she 
swore in chancery, and her hand was proved ; that is 
to say, it was like it : but my lord chief justice Keil- 
ing directs the jury, that though in civil causes it is 
a proof, yet it is the smallest and least of proofs ; 

VOL. I. X 



170 THE TRIAL GF 

but in criminal cases it was none at all. So that my 
lord Howard's testimony is single; and what he 
talks of those two businesses, that he calls a consult, 
and Aaron Smith, is destroyed by want of proof. 
What could six men do ? Can my lord Howard raise 
five men by his credit, by his purse ? Let him say 
as much for me, with all my heart; for my part I 
do not know where to raise five men. That such 
men as we are, that have no followers, should under- 
take so vast a design, is very unlikely : and this great 
design that was carried on thus, it had neither offi- 
cers nor soldiers, no place, no time, no money for it. 
That which he said last time, which he forgot now : 
he talked of twenty-five or thirty thousand pounds ; 
but no man knew where it was to be had : but last 
time he said, it was spoken in jest. Now this is a 
pretty cabal, that six men should meet about a busi- 
ness, and they neglect every one of the points relat- 
ing to the thing they met about, make no step about 
the business, and if any one did speak of it, it was 
but in jest. This is a very deep maintaining of the 
plot. Then, my lord, as to these papers, I do not 
think I am to give any account of them : I would 
say nothing to the disparagement of Sir Philip 
Lloyd ; I never saw him till he came to my house : 
but yet I say he is the king's officer, and when I am 
prosecuted at the king's suit, I think he ought to be 
no witness. The government of France is violent 
and absolute ; but yet, a few years ago, a minister of 
state had his papers taken from him, and abundance 
of them had dangerous plots against the king in 
them ; but because they were inventoried in his offi- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY* 171 

cers' presence, or those deputed by him, there was 
no use could be made of them ; it was an irreparable 
fault in the process, and that saved him. The si- 
militude of hands is nothing : we know that hands 
will be counterfeited, so that no man shall know his 
own hand. A gentleman that is now dead told me, 
that my lord Arlington, about five years ago, desired 
him to write a letter, and seal it as well as he could. 
He Writ it with care, and sealed it with a wafer 
and wax upon it ; and within a few days my lord 
Arlington brought him five letters, and he did not 
know which was his own. The attorney shews 
these papers to me; I do not know whether they 
are my own, or no ; but these very papers, such 
as they are, do abhor as much as any one can, such 
a design. Look upon them ; you see they are all 
old ink. These papers may be writ perhaps these 
twenty years, the ink is so old. But, my lord, it is 
a polemical discourse ; it seems to be an answer to 
Filmer, which is not calculated for any particular 
government in the world; it goes only upon these 
general principles, that according to the universal 
law of God and nature there is but one government 
in the world, and that is intire and absolute; and 
that the king can be bound by no law, by no oath, 
but he may make all laws, and abolish them as he 
pleases : and this whether of age or no, a man, or a 
child, of sense, or out of his sense. Now, my lord, 
what if any man in his cabinet should have written this 
book ? Then he has another principle ; he says, 'tis 
the same thing whether a king come in by election, 
by donation, by inheritance, or usurpation, or any 



172 THE TRIAL 01 

other way ; than which, I think, never was a thing 
more desperately said. Cromwell, when one White, 
a priest, wrote * a book, wherein he undertook to 
prove, ' that possession was the only right to power,' 
though he was a tyrant, and a violent one f (you 

* The title of the book (a curious one too, the above notwith- 
standing) is, The Grounds of obedience and government. By 
Thomas White, gentleman. (A secular Romish priest.) 

There are two editions of it. The second edition was printed, 
London, 1655, in 16to. The motto to the title is, Salus fiofiuli 
sufirema lex. See many circumstances relating to this learned 
able writer, and his works, in A. Woods' Athenae Oxonienses, 
and bishop Kennet's Hist. Register. 

t Milton had held out the beacon to him in his sonnet, " To 
the Lord General Cromwell," May 1651 ; before he destroyed 
the Parliament, and, by authority of the army, set up tyrant 
for himself. 

Cromwell, our chief of men, that through a croud, 

Not of war only, but detractions rude, 

Guided by faith, and matchless fortitude, 

To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd, 

And fought God's battles, and his work pursu'd ; 

While Darwent streams with blood of Scots imbru'd, 

And Dunbar field resound thy praises loud, 

And Worc'ster's laureat wreath. Yet much remains 

To conquer still ; peace hath her vict'ries 

No less than those of war. New foes arise 

Threat'ning to bind our souls in secular chains f 

Help us to save free conscience from the paw 

Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. 

And in his Defensio secwida, he threw it out, nobly, a second 
time, in the following beautiful address to Cromwell, then self- 
made Protector. " Tu igitur, Cromuelle, magnitudine ilia animi 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 173 

need not wonder I call him tyrant, I did so every day 
in his life, and acted against him too) it would be so 
odious a principle, he could not endure it, and used 
him very slightly for it. Now this Filmer, that no 

macte esto ; te enim decet ; tu patriae liberator, liberatis auc- 
tor, custosque idem et conservator, neque graviorem personam, 
neque augustiorem, suscipere potes aliam ; qui non mod6 re- 
gum res gestas, sed Heroum quoque nostrorum fabules factis 
exuperasti. Cogita saepius quam caram rem, ab quam cara 
parente tua, libertatem a patria tibi commendatam atque con- 
creditam, apud te depositam habes : quod ab electissimis gen- 
tis universae viris, ilia mod6 expectabat, id nunc a te uno ex- 
pectat, per te unum consequi sperat : — Reverere tantam de te 
expectationem, spem patriae de te unicam ; reverere vultus et 
vulnera tot fortium viorum, quotquot, te duce, pro libertate, tarn 
strenue decertarunt ; manes etiam eorum, qui in ipso certamine 
occubuerunt : reverere exterarum quoque civitatum existima- 
tionem de nobis atque sermones ; quantas res de libertate nos- 
tra, tarn fortiter part a, de nostra, republica, tarn gloriose exorta 
sibi polliceantur : quae si tarn eito quasi aborta evanuerit, pro- 
fecto nihil aeque dedecorosum huic genti, atque pudendum fu- 
erit : teipsum denique reverere, ut pro qua adipiscenda liber- 
tate, tot aerumnas pertulisti, tot pericula adiisti, earn adeptus, 
violatem per te, aut ulla in parte imminutam aliis, ne sinas esse. 
Profecto tu ipse liber sine nobis esse non potes ; sic enim na- 
tura comparatum est, ut qui aliorum libertatem occupat, suam 
ipse primus omnium amittat ; seque primum omnium intelligat 
servire : atque id quidem non injuria. At vero si patronus ipse 
libertatis, et quasi tutelaris deus, si is, quo nemo justior nemo 
sanctior est habitus, nemo vir melior, quam vindicavit ipse, earn 
postmodum, invaserit, id non ipsi tantum, sed universae virtutis 
ac pietatis rationi perniciosum ac lethale propemodum sit ne- 
cesse est ; ipsa honestas, ipsa virtus decoxisse videbitur, reli- 
gionis augusta fides, existimatio perexigua in posterum erit, quo 
gravius generi humano vulnus, post iliud primum, infligi nul- 
lum potent." 



174 THE TRIAL OF 

one must write against, is the man that does assert 
it, 'that 'tis no matter how they come by their 
power;' and gives the same power to the worst 
usurpers, as they that most rightly come to the 
crown. By the same argument, if the arrantest ras- 
cal of Israel had killed Moses, David, &c. and seized 
upon the power, he had been possessed of that power, 
and been father of the people. If this be doctrine, 
my lord, that is just and good, then I confess it may 
be dangerous for any thing that may be found in a 
man's house contrary to it ; but if a commoner of 
England write his present thoughts, and another man 
upon looking on his book, write his present thoughts 
of it, what great hurt is there in it ? And I ask Mr. 
Attorney, how many years ago that was written ? 

L. C. /. I don't know what the book was in an- 
swer to. We are not to speak of any book that Sir 
Robert Filmer wrote ; but you are to make your de- 
fence touching a book that was found in your study, 
and spend not your time, and the court's time, in 

The same afterwards did Harrington in his Oceana ; and 
though more covertly, according to his plan, yet like an Eng- 
lishman and a gentleman. The title of his book is, " The 
Commonwealth of Oceana. Dedicated to his highnesse the 
Lord Protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. (Which makes the whole dedication.) By James 
Harrington. " London, printed, 1656, in folio. Cromwell, 
after the perusal of the book, said, " The gentleman had like 
to trepan him out of his power ; but that what he got by the 
sword, he would not quit for a little paper shot," &c. As see 
in the life of Harrington, with divers singular observations on 
that speech. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 175 

that which serves to no other purpose, than to grat- 
ify a luxuriant way of talking that you have. We 
have nothing to do with his book ; you had as good 
tell me again, that there was a parcel of people ramb- 
ling about, pretending to my lord Russel's ghost; 
and so we may answer all the comedies in England. 
Answer to the matter you are indicted for. Do you 
own that paper ? 

Col. Sydney* No, my lord. 

L. C. J. Go on then. It does not become us 
to be impatient to hear you, but we ought to adver- 
tise you, that you spend not your time to no pur- 
pose, and do yourself an injury. 

Col. Sydney. I say, first, 'tis not proved upon 
me : and secondly, 'tis not a crime if it be proved.... 

L. C. /. You began very materially in one 
thing ; it is material for you to apply yourself to take 
off the credibility of my lord Howard, that is a wit- 
ness ; call your witnesses to that purpose, or if you 
have any other point to take away the credibility of 
any other witness. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I have seven or eight 
points of law. 

L. C. J. I hear not one yet. 

Col. Sydney. Why, my lord, conspiring to levy 



176 THE TRIAL OF 

war is not treason, and I desire to have counsel upon 
that. 

L. C. J. 'Tis not a question. You had as good 
ask me, whether the first chapter in Littleton be law ? 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I have neither made war, 
nor conspired to levy war. 

L. C. J. You are still in a mistake: you shall 
not think that we intend to dialogue with you, to let 
you know how far the proof hath been given or not 
given ; but when we come to direct the jury, then 
we shall observe how far the law requires there should 
be two witnesses. But whether there be such a 
proof, that must be left to the jury. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. If you agree to the conspi- 
racy, I will tell you my mind of it : I cannot give 
you my opinion in law, till the fact be stated. 

L. C. J. The law always arises upon a point of 
fact ; there can be no doubt in point of law, till there 
be a settlement in point of fact. 

Mr. J. Holloway. My lord has put you in a right 
way : the conspiracy is proved but by one witness, 
if you have any thing to take off his credibility, 'tis 
to the purpose. 

Col. Sydney. Truly, my lord, I do as little intend 
to mispend my own spirit, and your time, as ever 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 177 

any man that came before you. Now, my lord, if 
you will make a concatenation of one thing, a suppo- 
sition upon supposition, I would take all this asun- 
der, and shew, if none of these things are any thing 
in themselves, there can be nothing joined together. 

L. C. J. Take your own method, Mr. Sydney ; 
but I say, if you are a man of low spirits and weak 
body, 'tis a duty incumbent upon the court, to exhort 
you not to spend your time upon things that are not 
material. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I think 'tis very material 
that a whimsical imagination of a conspiracy should 
not pass for a real conspiracy of the death of the king; 
besides, if these papers w v ere found in my house, 'tis 
a crime created since my imprisonment, and that 
cannot come in, for they were found since. My 
lord, if these papers are right, it mentions two hun- 
dred and odd sheets, and these shew neither begin- 
ning nor ending; and will you, my lord, indict a 
man for treason for scraps of paper, found in his 
house relating to an ancient paper, intended as inno- 
cently as any thing in the world, and piece and patch 
this to my lord Howard's discourse, to make this a 
contrivance to kill the king. Then, my lord, I think 
'tis a right of mankind, and 'tis exercised by all stu- 
dious men, that they write in their own closets what 
they please for their own memory, and no man can 
be answerable for it, unless they publish it. 

VOL. I. Y 



178 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. Pray don't go away with that right of 
mankind, that it is lawful for me to write what I will 
in my own closet, unless I publish it. I have been 
told, ' Curse not the king, not in thy thoughts, not in 
thy bed-chamber; the birds of the air will carry it.' I 
took it to be the duty of mankind, to observe that. 

Col. Sydney. I have lived under the inquisition. . . . 

L.C.J. God be thanked, we are governed by law* 

Col. Sydney. I have lived under the inquisition, 
and there is no man in Spain can be tried for heresy. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. Draw no precedents from 
the inquisition, here, I beseech you, sir. 

L. C. J. We must not endure men to talk, that 
by the right of nature every man may contrive mis- 
chief in his own chamber, and he is not to be pun- 
ished till he thinks fit to be called to it. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, if you will take scripture 
by pieces, you will make all the penmen of the scrip- 
ture blasphemous ; you may accuse David of saying, 
there is no God ; and accuse the evangelists of say- 
ing, Christ was a blasphemer and a seducer ; and the 
apostles, that they were drunk. 

L. C. /. Look you, Mr. Sydney, if there be any 
part of it that explains the sense of it, you shall have 
it read ; indeed we are trifled with a little. 5 Tis 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 179 

true, in scripture, 'tis said, " There is no God," and 
you must not take that alone, but you must say, 
" The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." 
Now here is a thing imputed to you in the libel ; if 
you can say, there is any part that is in excuse of it, 
call for it. As for the purpose, whosoever does pub- 
lish, that the king may be put in chains or deposed, 
is a traitor ; but whosoever says, that none but trai- 
tors would put the king in chains or depose him, is 
an honest man ; therefore apply ad idem, but don't 
let us make excursions. 

Col. Sydney. If they will produce the whole, my 
lord, then I can say whether one part contradicts 
another. 

L. C. J. Well, if you have any witnesses, call 
them. 

Col. Sydney. The Earl of Anglesey. 

L. C. J. Ay, in God's name, stay till to-morrow 
in things that are pertinent. 

Col. Sydney. I desire to know of my lord An- 
glesey, what my lord Howard said to him concern- 
ing the plot that was broken out. 

Lord Anglesey. Concerning this plot you are now 
questioned for ? 

Col. Sydney. The plot for which my lord Russel 
and I was in prison. 



180 THE TRIAL OJ 

Lord Anglesey. The question I am asked, is, 
what my lord Howard said before the trial of my lord 
Russel, concerning the plot ; I suppose this goes as 
a branch of that he was accused for. I was then in 
the country, when the business was on foot, and used 
to come to town a day or two in the week, living 
near in Hertfordshire; and I, understanding the af- 
fliction my lord of Bedford was in, I went to give 
my lord a visit, we having been acquaintance of 
above fifty years standing, and bred together in 
Maudlin College, in Oxford. When I came to my 
lord of Bedford, and had administered that comfort 
that was fit for one christian to give another in that 
distress, I was ready to leave him, and my lord How- 
ard came in. It was upon the Friday before my lord 
Howard was taken ; he was taken (as I take it) upon 
Sunday or Monday. My lord Howard fell into the 
same christian office that I had been just discharging, 
to compassionate my lord's affliction, to use argu- 
ments to comfort and support him under it, and told 
him he was not to be troubled, for he had a discreet, 
a wise, and a virtuous son, and he could not be in 
any such plot (I think that was the word he used at 
first, though he gave another name to it afterward) 
and his lordship might therefore well expect a good 
issue of that business, and lie might believe his son 
secure, for he believed he was neither guilty, nor 
so much as to be suspected. My lord proceeded 
further, and did say, that he knew of no such bar- 
barous design (I think he called it so in the second 
place) and could not charge my lord Russel with it, 
nor any body else. This was the effect of what my 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 131 

lord Howard said at that time, and I have nothing to 
say of my own knowledge more than this; but to 
observe, that I was present when the jury did put 
my lord Howard particularly to it ; " What have you 
to* say to what my lord Anglesey testifies against 
you ?" My lord, I think, did in three several places 
give a short account of himself, and said it was very 
true; and gave them some further account why he 
said it, and said, he should be very glad it might 
have been advantageous to my lord Russel. 

Col. Sydney. My lord of Clare. I desire to know 
of my lord of Clare, what my lord Howard said con- 
cerning this plot and me. 

Lord Clare. My lord, a little after Colonel Sydr 
ney was taken, speaking of the times, he said, that 
if ever he was questioned again, he would never 
plead ; the quickest dispatch was the best ; he was 
sure they would have his life, though he was never 
so innocent : and discoursing of the late primate of 
Armagh's prophecy, 4 For my part,' says he, t I think 
the persecution is begun, and I believe it will be 
very sharp ; but I hope it will be short : ' and I said, 
I hoped so too. 

Mr. Att. Gen. What answer did your lordship 
give to it ? 

Lord Clare. I have told you what I know : my 
lord is too full of discourse for me to answer all he 
says; but for Colonel Sydney, he did with great 



182 THE TRIAL OF 

asseverations assert, that he was as innocent as any 
man breathing, and used great encomiums in his 
praise, and then he seemed to bemoan his misfortune, 
which I thought real ; for never was any man more 
engaged to another, than he was to Colonel Sydney, 
I believe. Then I told they talked of papers that 
were found, ' I am sure,' says he, c they can make 
nothing of any papers of his.' 

Mr. Att. Gen. When was this ? 

Lord Clare. This was at my house the begin- 
ning of July. 

Mr. Att. Gen. How long before my lord How- 
ard was taken ? 

Lord Clare. About a week before. 

Mr. Att. Gen. I would ask you, my lord, upon 
your honour, would not any man have said as much, 
that had been in the plot ? 

Lord Clare. I can't tell, I know of no plot. 

Col. Sydney. Mr. Philip Howard. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. What do you ask him ? 

Col. Sydney. What you heard my lord Howard 
say concerning this pretended plot, or my being 
ink? 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 183 

Mr. Phil. Howard. My lord, when the plot first 
brake out, I used to meet my lord Howard very often 
at my brother's house, and coming one day from 
Whitehall, he asked me, What news ? I told him, 
My lord, says I, there are abundance of people that 
have confessed the horrid design of murthering the 
king, and the duke. How, says he, is such a thing 
possible? Says I, 'Tis so, they have all confessed it. 
Says he, Do you know any of their names ? Yes, 
says I, I have heard their names. What are their 
names ? says he. Why, says I, Colonel Rumsey, 
and Mr. West, and one Walcot, and others, that 
are in the proclamation (I can't tell whether Walcot 
was in hold). Says he, 'Tis impossible such a thing 
can be ; says he, there are in all countries people that 
wish ill to the government, and, says he, I believe 
there are some here ; but, says he, for any man of 
honour, interest, or estate, to go about it, is wholly 
impossible. Says I, My lord, so it is, and I be- 
lieve it. Says I, My lord, do you know any of 
these people ? No, says he, none of them ; only one 
day, says he, passing through the Exchange, a man 
saluted me, with a blemish upon his eye, and he em- 
braced me, and wished me all happiness : says he, I 
could not call to mind who this man was : but after- 
wards, I recollected myself, that I met him at my 
lord Shaftesbury's, and heard afterwards, and con- 
cluded his name to be his at whose house the 

king was to be assassinated 

Mr. Ait. Gen. Rombald. 



184 THE TRIAL OF 

Mr. Howard. Ay, Rombald. My lord, may I 
ask if my lord Howard be here ? 

L. C. J. He is there behind you. 

Mr. Howard. Then he will hear me. My lord, 
stays I, what does your lordship think of this busi- 
ness ? Says he, I am in a maze. Says I, If you will 
be ruled by me, you have a good opportunity to ad- 
dress to the king, and all the discontented lords, as 
they are called; and to shew your detestation and ab- 
horrence of this thing ; for, says I, this will be a 
good means to reconcile all things. Says he, You 
have put one of the best notions in my head that ever 
was put. Says I, You are a very good penman; 
draw up the first address (and I believe I was the first 
that mentioned an address, you have had many an 
one since; God send them good success). Says he, 
I am sorry my lord of Essex is out of town, he should 
present it. But, says I, here is my lord Russel, my 
lord of Bedford, my lord of Clare, all of you that are 
disaffected, and so accounted, go about this business, 
and make the nation happy, and king happy. Says 
he, Will you stay till I come back ? Ay, says I, if 
you will come in any time ; but he never came back 
while I was there. The next day, I think, my lord 
Russel was taken, and I came and found him at my 
brother's house again (for he was there day and 
night). Says he, Cousin, what news ? Says I, My 
lord Russel is sent to the Tower. We are all un- 
done then, says he. Pray, says he, go to my lord 
Privy-seal, and see if you can find I am to be taken 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 185 

up : says he, I doubt 'tis a sham plot ; if it was a 
true plot, I should fear nothing. Says I, What do 
you put me to go to lord Privy- seal for ? He is one 
of the king's cabinet council ; do you think he will 
tell me ? I won't go. But, says I, If you are not 
guilty, why would you have me go to inquire ? 
Why, says he, Because I fear 'tis not a true plot, but 
a plot made upon us; and therefore, says he, there 
is no man free. My lord, I can say no more as to 
that time (and there is no man that sits here, that 
wishes the king better than I do). The next thing 
I come to, is this, I came the third day, and he was 
mighty sad and melancholy, that was when Colonel 
Sydney was taken: says I, Why are you melan- 
choly, because Colonel Sydney is taken ? Says I, 
Colonel Sydney was a man talked of before ; why, 
you w T ere not troubled for my lord Russel that is of 
your blood. Says he, I have that particular obliga- 
tion from Colonel Sydney, that no one man had from 
another. I have one thing to say farther, I pray I 
may be rightly understood in what I have said. 

L. C. J. What, you would have us undertake 
for all the people that hear you ? I think you have 
spoken very materially, and I will observe it by and 
by to the jury. 

Col. Sydney, Pray call Doctor Burnet. 

Mr. Just. Walcott. What do you ask Doctor 
Burnet? 

vol, i. z 



186 THE TRIAL OP 

Col. Sydney, I have only to ask Doctor Burnet, 
Whether, after the news of this pretended plot, my 
lord Howard came to him ? and what he said to him ? 

Dr. Burnet. My lord, the day after this plot 
brake out, my lord Howard came to see me, and 
upon some discourse of the plot, with hands and 
eyes lifted up to heaven, he protested he knew noth- 
ing of any plot, and believed nothing of it, and said, 
that he looked upon it as a ridiculous thing. \_My 
lord Pagett ivas sent for at the prisoner's request, 
being in the hall.~\ 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire Joseph Ducas 
may be called. [Who appeared, being a French- 
man.'] 

Col. Sydney. I desire to know whether he was 
not in my house when my lord Howard came thither, 
a little after I was made a prisoner, and what he said 
upon it ? 

Ducas. Yes. My lord, my lord Howard came 
the day after the Colonel Sydney was taken, and he 
asked me, where was the Colonel Sydney ? And I 
said, he was taken by an order of the king. And 
he said, Oh Lord ! what is that for ? I said, They 
have taken papers. He said, Are some papers left ? 
Yes. Have they taken something more ? No. 
Well, you must take all the things out of the house, 
and carry them to some you can trust. I dare trust 
nobody. Says he, I will lend my coach and coach- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 187 

man. I said, if the Colonel Sydney will save his 
goods, he save them ; if not, 'tis no matter. A lit- 
tle after, the lord Howard came in the house of Co- 
lonel Sydney, about eleven a clock at night. When 
he was in, I told him, What is this ? They talk of a 
plot to kill the king and the duke ; and I told him 
they spake of one general insurrection ; and I told 
him more, that I understood that Colonel Sydney 
was sent into Scotland. When my lord Howard 
understood that, he said, God knows, I know noth- 
ing of this, and I am sure if the Colonel Sydney was 
concerned in the matter, he would tell me something; 
but I know nothing. Well, my lord, I told him, I 
believe you are not safe in this house, there is more 
danger here than in another place. Says he, I have 
been a prisoner, and I had rather do any thing in the 
world than be a prisoner again. {Then my lord 
Paget t came into the court. ~\ 

Col. Sydney. Pray, my lord, be pleased to tell 
the court, if my lord Howard has said any thing to 
you concerning this late pretended plot, or my being 
any party in it. 

Lord Pagett. My lord, I was subpoena'd to 
come hither, and did not know upon what account. 
I am obliged to say, my lord Howard was with me 
presently after the breaking out of this plot, and be- 
fore his appearing in that part which he now acts, 
he came to me ; and I told him, that I was glad to 
see him abroad, and that he was not concerned in 
this disorder. He said, he had joy from several 



188 THE TRIAL OF 

concerning it, and he took it as an injury to him, for 
that it looked as if he were guilty. He said he 
knew nothing of himself, nor any body eke. And 
though he was free in discourse, and free to go into 
any company indifferently; yet, he said, he had not 
seen any body that could say any thing of him, or 
give him occasion to say any thing of any body else. 

CoL Sydney, Mr. Edward Howard. 

Mr. Ed. Hozvard. Mr. Sydney, what have you 
to say to me ? 

CoL Sydney. My lord, I desire you would ask 
Mr. Edward Howard the same thing, What discourse 
he had with my lord Howard about this plot ? 

L. C /. Mr. Howard, Mr. Sydney desires you 
to tell what discourse you had with my lord How- 
ard about this plot. 

Air. Hozvai*d. My lord, I have been for some 
time very intimate with my lord, not only upon ac- 
count of our alliance, but upon a strict intimacy and 
correspondence of friendship, and I think I was as 
much his as he could expect from that alliance. I 
did move him during this time, to serve the king 
upon the most honourable account I could, but that 
proved ineffectual : I pass that, and come to the bu- 
siness here. As soon as the plot brake out, my lord 
having a great intimacy with me, expressed a great 
detestation and surprising in himself to hear of it, 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 189 

wherein my lord Howard assured me, under very- 
great asseverations, that he could neither accuse 
himself, nor no man living. He told me moreover, 
that there were certain persons of quality whom he 
was very much concerned for, that they should be so 
much reflected upon or troubled, and he condoled 
very much their condition both before and after they 
were taken. My lord, I believe in my conscience, 
he did this without any mental reservation, or equiv- 
ocation, for he had no reason to do it with me. I 
add moreover, if I have any sense of my lord's dis- 
position, I think if he had known of any such thing, 
he would not have stood his being taken, or have 
made his application to the king in this manner, I 
am afraid not so suitable to his quality. 

L. C. J. No reflections upon any body. 

Mr. Howard. My lord, I reflect upon nobody; I 
understand where I am, and have a respect for the 
place; but since your lordship has given me this 
occasion, I must needs say, that that reproof that was 
accidentally given me at the trial of my lord Russel, 
by reason of a weak memory, made me omit some 
particulars I will speak now, which are these, and 
I think they are material : my lord, upon the dis- 
course of this plot, did further assure me, that it was 
certainly a sham, even to his knowledge. How, my 
lord, says I, do you mean a sham ? Why, says he, 
such an one, cousin, as is too black for any minister 
of public employment to have devised : but, says 
he, it was forged by people in the dark, such as 



190 THE TRIAL OF 

Jesuits and Papists ; and, says he, this is my con- 
science. Says I, my lord, if you are sure of this 
thing, then pray, my lord, do that honourable thing 
that becomes your quality, that is, give the king sat- 
isfaction as becomes you; pray make an address 
under your hand to the king, whereby you express 
your detestation and abhorrence of this thing. Says 
he, I thank you for your counsel : to what minister, 
says he, shall I apply myself? I pitched upon my 
lord Halifax ; and I told him of my lord's desire, and 
I remember my lord Howard named the duke of 
Monmouth, my lord of Bedford, the earl of Clare, 
and he said he was sure they would do it ; that he 
was sure of their innocence, and would be glad of 
the occasion : and I went to my lord Halifax, and 
told him that my lord was willing to set it under his 
hand, his detestation of this plot, and that there was 
no such tiling to his knowledge. My lord Halifax 
very worthily received me; says he, I will introduce 
it. But my lord Russel being taken, this was laid 
aside, and my lord gave this reason. For, says he, 
there will be so many people taken, they will be 
hindered. I must needs add from my conscience 
and my heart, before God and man, that if my lord 
had spoken before the king, sitting upon his throne, 
abating for the solemnity of the presence, I could 
not have more believed him, from that assurance he 
had in me. And I am sure from what I have said, 
if I had the honour to be of this gentleman's jury, 
I would not believe him. 

L. C. 7. That must not be suffered. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 191 

Mr. Att. Gen. You ought to be bound to your 
good behaviour for that. 

L. C. J. The jury are bound by their oaths to 
go according to their evidence, they are not to go 
by men's conjectures. 

Mr. Howard. May I go, my lord ? 

Mr. Att. Gen. My lord Howard desires he may 
stay : we shall make use of him. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I spake of a mortgage 
that I had of my lord Howard; I don't know 
whether it is needful to be proved ; but it is so. 

Lord Hoivard. I confess it. 

Col. Sydney. Then, my lord, here is the other 
point ; he is under the fear, that he dare not but say 
what he thinks will conduce towards the gaining his 
pardon ; and that he hath expressed, that he could 
not have his pardon, but he must first do this 
drudgery of swearing. I need not say, that his son 
should say, that he was sorry his father could not 
get his pardon unless he did swear against some 
others. 

Col. Sydney. Call Mr. Blake. \_Who appeared."} 
My lord, I desire he may be asked, Whether my 
lord Howard did not tell him that he could not get 
his pardon yet, and he could ascribe it to nothing 



192 THE TRIAL OF 

but that the drudgery of swearing must be over first. 
[Then the Lord Chief Justice asked the question.'] 

Mr. Blake. My lord, I am very sorry I should 
be called to give a public account of a private con- 
versation. How it comes about I don't know. My 
lord sent for me about six weeks ago, to com- and 
see him. I went, and we talked of news. I told 
him I heard nobody had their pardon, but he that first 
discovered the plot. He told me no, but he had his 
warrant for it : and, says he, I have their word and 
honour for it ; but, says he, I will do nothing in it 
till I have further order; and, says he, I hear nothing 
of it, and I can ascribe it to no other reason, but I 
must not have my pardon till the drudgery of swear- 
ing is over. These words my lord said ; I believe my 
lord won't deny it. [ Then Mr. Sydney called Air. 
Hunt and Burroughs, but they did not appear.] 

Col. Sydney. 'Tis a hard case they don't appear : 
one of them was to prove that my lord Howard said 
he could not have his pardon till he had done some 
other jobs. 

L. C. J. I can't help it ; if you had come for as- 
sistance from the court I would willingly have done 
what I could. [Then Col. Sydney mentioned the 
duke of Buckingham, but he ivas informed he teas 
not subpoenaed.] 

Col. Sydney. Call Grace Tracey and Elizabeth 
Penwick. \Who appeared.] I ask you only, what 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 193 

my lord Howard said to you at my house concern- 
ing the plot, and my being in it ? 

Tracey. Sir, he said he knew nothing of a plot, 
he protested, and he was sure Colonel Sydney knew 
nothing of it. And he said, if you knew any thing 
of it, he must needs know of it, for he knew as 
much of your concerns as any one in the world. 

Col. Sydney. Did he take God to witness upon it? 

Tracey. Yes. 

Col. Sydney. Did he desire my plate at my 
house ? 

Tracey. I can't tell that: he said the goods 
might be sent to his house. 

Col. Sydney. Pen wick, what did my lord How- 
ard say in your hearing concerning the pretended 
plot, or my plate carrying away ? 

Penwick. When he came he asked for your hon- 
our; and they said your honour was taken away by 
a man to the Tower for the plot ; and then he took 
God to witness he knew nothing of it, and believed 
your honour did not neither. He said he was in 
the Tower two years ago, and your honour, he be- 
lieved, saved his life. 

VOL. I. 2 A 



194 THE TRIAL 0? 

Col. Sydney. Did he desire the plate ? 

Ptnwick. Yes, and said it should be sent to his 
house to be secured. He said it was only malice. 
\_Mr. Wharton stood np.~\ 

Mr. Wharton. 'Tis only this I have to say, that 
if your lordship pleases to shew me any of these 
sheets of paper, I will undertake to imitate them in 
a little time that you shan't know which is which. 
'Tis the easiest hand that ever I saw in my life. 

Mr. Att. Gen. You did not write these, Mr. 
Wharton ? 

Mr. Wharton. No, but I will do this in a very 
little time if you please. 

L. C. J. Have you any more witnesses ? 

Col. Sydney. No, my lord. 

L. C. J. Then apply yourself to the jury. 

Col. Sydney. Then this is that I have to say. 
Here is a huge complication of crimes laid to my 
charge. I did not know at first under what statute 
they were ; now I find 'tis the statute of 25 Ed. 3. 
This statute hath two branches ; one relating to war, 
the other to the person of the king. That relating 
to the person of the king, makes the conspiring, 
imagining, and compassing his death, criminal. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. * 195 

That concerning war, is not, unless it be levied : 
now, my lord, I cannot imagine to which of these 
they refer my crime ; and I did desire your lordship 
to explain it. For to say that men did meet to 
conspire the king's death, and he that gives you the 
account of the business does not speak one word of 
it, seems extravagant ; for conspiracies have ever 
their denomination from that point to which they 
tend ; as a conspiracy to make false coin infers 
instruments and the like. A conspiracy to take 
away a woman, to kill, or rob, are all directed to 
that end. So conspiring to kill the king, must im- 
mediately aim at killing the king. The king hath 
two capacities, natural and politic ; that which is the 
politic can't be within the statute ; in that sense he 
never dies; and 'tis absurd to say it should be a 
fault to kill the king that can't die. So then it must 
be the natural sense it must be understood in, which 
must be done by sword, by pistol, or any other way. 
Now if there be not one word of this, then that is 
utterly at an end, though the witness had been good. 

The next point is concerning levying of war. 
Levying of war is made treason there, so it be 
proved by overt act; but an overt act of that never 
was, or can be pretended here. If the war be not 
levied, 'tis not within the act ; for conspiring to levy 
war is not in the act. My lord, there is no man 
that thinks that I would kill the king, that knows 
me ; I am not a man to have such a design ; perhaps 
I may say I have saved his life once. So that it must 
be by implication ; that is, it is first imagined that I 



196 THE TRIAL OF 

intended to raise a war, and then 'tis imagined that 
war should tend to the destruction of the king. 
Now I know that may follow ; but that is not natural 
or necessary ; and being not natural or necessary, it 
can't be so understood by the law. That it is not, 
is plain ; for many wars have been made, and the 
death of the king has not followed. David made 
war upon Saul, yet nobody will say he sought his 
death ; he had him under his power and did not kill 
him. David made war upon Ishbosheth, yet did 
not design his death : and so, in England and 
France, kings have been taken prisoners, but they 
did not kill them. King Stephen was taken pris- 
oner, but they did not kill him. So that 'tis two 
distinct things, to make war, and to endeavour to 
kill the king. Now as there is no manner of pre- 
tence, that I should endeavour to kill the king di- 
rectly, so it can't be by inference, because 'tis trea- 
son under another species. I confess I am not fit to 
argue these points ; I think I ought to have counsel : 
but if you won't allow it me, I can't help it; but 
these things are impossible to be jumbled up to- 
gether. Now I say this, if I am not under the first 
branch, if not directly, I can't be by implication ; 
though I did make war, I can't be said to conspire 
the death of the king, because 'tis a distinct species 
of treason; and my lord Coke says, it is the over- 
throw of all justice, to confound membra dividentia. 
Now if the making of war can't be understood to be 
a conspiring the death of the king, then I am not 
guilty of this indictment : but here, my lord, is 
neither conspiring the death of the king, nor making 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 197 

war, nor conspiring to make war. Besides, I say, 
'tis not the best man's evidence here would be good 
in this case, because the law requires two. 

The next thing is the business of Aaron Smith, 
which my lord tells so imperfectly, and so merely 
conjectural, that there is nothing in it, but his rhet- 
oric in setting it out. He tells you of a letter sent 
with him; but he does not tell you by whom writ, 
what was in it, or whether it was delivered or no ; 
so that I think we may lay that aside as the other, as 
things nothing in them at all. Then, says Mr. At- 
torney, these Scotch gentlemen are come to town. I 
profess I never heard the names of one of them till 
he named them to me in the Tower. I have not 
sent myself, nor writ a letter into Scotland never 
since the year '59; nor do I know one man in Scot- 
land to whom I can write, or from whom I ever re- 
ceived one. I returned into England in the year 
'77, and since that time have not writ nor received a 
letter from Scotland. Then, some gentlemen came 
hither. What is that to me ? I never saw one of 
the Campbells in my life, nor Monro. If any one 
can prove I have had communication with them, I 
will be glad to suffer. 

Then here are papers : if any thing is to be made 
of them, you must produce the whole, for 'tis im- 
possible to make any thing of a part of them. You 
ask me, what other passage I would have read ? I 
don't know a passage in them ; I can't tell whether 
it be good or bad. But if there are any papers 



198 THE TRIAL OF 

found, 'tis a great doubt whether they were found 
in my study or no, or whether they be not counter- 
feit; but though that be admitted that they were 
found in my house, the hand is such that it shews 
they have been writ very many years. Then that 
which seems to be an account of the sections and 
chapters, that is but a scrap ; and what if any body 
had, my lord, either in my own hand or another's, 
found papers that are not well justifiable, is this 
treason? Does this imagine the death of the king? 
Does this reach the life of the king? If any man can 
say I ever printed a sheet in my life, I will submit to 
any punishment. Many others, my lord, they write, 
and they write what comes into their heads. I be- 
lieve there is a brother of mine here has forty quires 
of paper written by my father, and never one sheet 
of them was published; but he writ his own mind, 
to see what he could think of it another time, and 
blot it out again, may be. And I myself, I believe, 
have burned more papers of my own writing, than a 
horse can carry. So that for these papers I can't an- 
swer for them. There is nothing in it; and what 
concatenation can this have with the other design, 
with my lord's select council selected by nobody to 
pursue the design of my lord Shaftesbury? And this 
council, that he pretends to be set up for a great bu- 
siness, was to be adjusted v/ith so much finesse, so 
as to bring things together. What was this finesse 
to do? taking it for granted, which I don't. This 
was nothing, if he was a credible witness, but a few 
men talking at large of what might be or not be, 
what was like to fall out without any manner of in- 



ALGERNON" SYDNEY. 199 

tention or doing any thing. They did not so much 
inquire whether there was men in the country, arms, 
or ammunition. A war to be made by five or six 
men, not knowing one another, nor trusting one 
another ! What said Dr. Coxe in his evidence at my 
lord Russel's trial, of my lord Russel's trusting my 
lord Howard ? He might say the same of others. 
So that, my lord, I say these papers have no manner 
of coherence, no dependance upon any such design. 
You must go upon conjecture ; and, after all, you 
find nothing but only papers, never perfect, only 
scraps written many years ago, and that could not be 
calculated for the raising of the people. Now, pray 
what imagination can be more vain than that ? and 
what man can be safe if the king's counsel may 
make such (whimsical I won't say, but) groundless 
constructions ? Mr. Attorney says the plot was 
broken to the Scots (God knows we were neither 
broken nor joined) and that the Campbells came to 
town about that time I was taken ; and in the mean 
time, my lord Howard, the great contriver of all this 
plot, who was most active, and advised the business 
that consisted of so much finesse, he goes there 
and agrees of nothing: and then goes into Essex 
upon great, important business, greater than the war 
of England and Scotland ; to what purpose ? To 
look after a little pimping manor ; and what then ? 
Why, then, it must be laid aside, and he must be 
idle five weeks at the Bath, and there is no inquiring 
after.it. Now I desire your lordship to consider, 
whether there be a possibility for any men, that have 
the sense of porters or grooms, to do such things as 



200 THE TRIAL OF 

he would put upon us. I would only say this, if 
Mr. Attorney be in the right, there was a combina- 
tion with the Scots, and then this paper was writ : 
for those that say I did it, say I was doing of it then ; 
and by the notes, there is work enough for four or 
five years, to make out what is mentioned in those 
scraps of paper, and this must be to kill the king. 
And I say this, my lord, that, under favour, for all 
constructive treasons you are to make none, but to 
go according to plain proof; and that these construc- 
tive treasons belong only to Parliament, and by the 
immediate proviso in that act. Now, my lord, I 
leave it to your lordship, to see whether there is in 
this any thing that you can say is an overt act of trea- 
son mentioned in 25 E. 3. If it be not plainly 
under one of the two branches, that I have endeav- 
oured to kill the king, or levied war, then 'tis matter 
of construction, and that belongs to no court, but 
the Parliament. Then, my lord, this hath been ad- 
judged already in Throgmorton's case. There are 
twenty judgments of Parliament, the act of 13 Eiiz. 

that say I should have somebody to speak for 

me, my lord. 

L. C. J. We are of another opinion. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. If you acknowledge the 
matter of fact, you say well. 

Col. Sydney. I say, there are several judgments 
of Parliament that do shew, whatever is constructive 
treason does not belong to any private court : that 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 201 

of 1 Mary. 1 Ed. 6. 1 Eliz. 5 Eliz. 18. another 13 
Car. shew this. Now, my lord, I say that the busi- 
ness concerning the papers, 'tis only a similitude of 
hands, which is just nothing. In my lady Carr's 
case, it was resolved to extend to no criminal cause ; 
if not to any, then not to the greatest, the most cap- 
ital. So that I have only this to say, that I think 'tis 
impossible for the jury to find this matter ; for the 
first point you proved by my lord Howard, that, I 
think, is nobody ; and the last concerning the pa- 
pers, is only imagination from the similitude of 
hands. If I had published it, I must have answered 
for it ; or if the thing had been whole, and mine, I 
must have answered for it ; but for these scraps never 
shewed any body, that, I think, does not at all con- 
cern me. And I say, if the jury should find it, 
(which is impossible they can) I desire to have the 
law reserved unto me. 

Mr. Sol. Gen. My lord, and you gentlemen of 
the jury. The evidence hath been long ; but I will 
endeavour to repeat it as faithfully as I can. The 
crime the prisoner stands accused for, is compassing 
and imagining the death of the king. That, which 
we go about to prove that compassing and imagining 
by, is by his meeting and consulting how to raise 
arms against the king, and by plain matter in writing 
under his own hand, where he does affirm, it is law- 
ful to take away and destroy the king. Gentlemen, 
I will begin with the first part of it, the meeting and 
consultation to raise arms against the king. 

VOL. i. 2 b 



J202 THE TRIAL OT 

The prisoner, gentlemen, hath endeavoured to 
avoid the whole force of this evidence by saying, 
that this in point of law canH affect him, if it were all 
proved ; for this does not amount to a proof of his 
compassing and imagining the death of the king : 
and he is very long in interpreting the act of Parlia- 
ment to you of 25 E. 3. and dividing of it into sev- 
eral members or branches of treason ; and does in- 
sist upon it, that though this should be an offence 
within one branch of the statute, yet that is not a 
proof of the other, which is the branch he is pro- 
ceeded upon, that is, the first clause against com- 
passing and imagining the death of the king. And, 
says he, conspiring to levy war is not so much as one 
branch of that statute, but it must be war actually 
levied. This is a matter he is wholly mistaken in, 
in point of law. It hath been adjudged over and 
over again, that an act which is in one branch of that 
statute, may be an overt act to prove a man guilty of 
another branch of it. As levying war is an overt act 
to prove a man guilty of conspiring the death of the 
king ; and this was adjudged in the case of Sir Henry 
Vane : so is meeting and consulting to raise to 
arms. And reason does plainly speak it to be so ; 
for they that conspire to raise war against the king, 
can't be presumed to stop any where till they have 
dethroned or murdered the king. Gentlemen, I 
won't be long in citing authorities ; it hath been set- 
tled lately by all the judges of England, in the case 
of my lord Russel, who hath suffered for this con- 
spiracy. Therefore, that point of law will be very 
plain against the prisoner; 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 203 

He hath mentioned some other things; as, that 
there must be two witnesses to every particular fact ; 
and one witness. to one fact, and another to another, 
is not sufficient It hath been very often objected, 
and as often over-ruled : it was over-ruled solemnly 
in the case of my lord Stafford. Therefore, if we 
have one witness to one overt act, and another to 
another, they will be two witnesses in law to convict 
this prisoner. 

In the first part of our evidence, we give you an 
account of the general design of an insurrection that 
was to have been ; that this was contrived first when 
my lord Shaftesbury was in England ; that after my 
lord Shaftesbury was gone, the business did not fall, 
but they thought fit to revive it again ; and, that they 
might carry it on the more steadily, they did con- 
trive a council among themselves of six, whereof the 
prisoner at the bar was one. They were the duke 
of Monmouth, my lord of Essex, my lord Howard, 
my lord Russel, the prisoner at the bar, and Mr. 
Hambden. This council they contrived to manage 
this affair, and to carry on that design that seemed to 
fall by the death of my lord Shaftesbury ; and they 
met. This we give you an account of, first by wit- 
nesses that gave you an account in general of it : and 
though they were not privy to it, yet they heard of 
this council, and that Colonel Sydney was to be one 
of this council. This, gentlemen, if it had stood 
alone by itself, had been nothing to affect the prisoner 
at all. But this will shew you, that this was dis- 
coursed among them that were in the conspiracy. 



204 THE TRIAL OF 

Then my lord Howard gives you an account, that 
first the duke of Monmouth, and he, and Colonel 
Sydney met; and it was agreed to be necessary to 
have a council that should consist of six or seven, 
and they were to carry it on : that the duke of Mon- 
mouth undertook to dispose my lord Russel to it, and 
Colonel Sydney to dispose the earl of Essex and Mr. 
Hambden; that these gentlemen did meet accord- 
ingly, and the substance of their discourse was, 
taking notice how the design had fallen upon the 
death of my lord Shaftesbury ; that it was lit to carry 
it on before men's inclinations were cool, for they 
found they were ready to it, and had great reason to 
believe it, because this being a business communi- 
cated to so many, yet for all that, it was kept very 
secret, and nobody had made any mention of it, 
which they looked upon as a certain argument that 
men were ready to engage in it. This encouraged 
them to go on in this conspiracy. Then when the 
six met at Mr. Hambden's house, they debated con- 
cerning the place of rising, and the time : the time 
they conceived must be suddenly, before men's 
minds were cool, for now they thought they were 
ready and very much disposed to it : and for place, 
they had in debate whether they should rise first in 
the town, or in the country, or both together : and 
for the persons, they thought it absolutely necessary 
for them to have the united counsels of Scotland to 
join with them, and therefore they did refer this mat- 
ter to be better considered of another time ; and they 
met afterwards at my lord Russel's house in Febru- 
ary, and there they had discourse to the same pur- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 205 

pose. But there they began to consider with them- 
selves, being they were to destroy this government, 
what they should set up in the room of it; to what 
purpose they engaged. For they did very wisely 
consider, if this be only to serve a turn, and to make 
one man great, this will be a great hindrance in their 
affair : therefore, they thought it was necessary to 
engage upon a public account, and to resolve all into 
the authority of a Parliament, which surely they 
either thought to force the king to call ; or otherwise, 
that the people might call a Parliament, if the king 
refused; and so they to choose their own heads. 

But still they were upon this point, that it was 
necessary for their friends in Scotland to have their 
counsels united with them ; and in order to that, it 
was necessary to contrive some way to send a mes- 
senger into Scotland, to bring some men here to 
treat and consult about it ; and Colonel Sydney is 
the man that does engage to send this messenger : 
and he had a man very fit for his turn, that is Aaron 
Smith, whom he could confide in; and him he un- 
dertook to send into Scotland. This messenger was 
to fetch my lord Mervin, the two Campbells, and 
Sir John Cockram. Colonel Sydney, as he engaged 
to do this, so afterwards he did shew to my lord 
Howard money, which he affirmed was for that bu- 
siness : he says, it was a sum of about sixty guineas, 
and he believes he gave it him; for that Colonel 
Sydney told him, that Aaron Smith was gone into 
Scotland ; that the pretence was not barefaced, to in- 
vite them over to consult of a rebellion, but to con- 



206 THE TRIAL 01 

suit about the business of Carolina, being a planta- 
tion for the persecuted brethren, as they pretended 
in Scotland. Gentlemen, these Scotchmen that were 
thus sent for over, they came accordingly ; that is, 
the two Campbells, and Sir John Cockram : and the 
discourse with Sir Andrew Foster was according to 
this cant, that was agreed on beforehand, concerning 
a plantation in Carolina. This it was that was pre- 
tended for their coming hither ; but the true errand 
was, the business of the insurrection intended. 
Gentlemen, that they came upon such a design, is 
evident from the circumstances: they came about 
the time the business brake out ; and in that time 
suspiciously changing their lodging, they were taken 
making their escape, and this at a time before it was 
probable to be known abroad that these men were 
named as part of the conspirators. These things do 
very much verify the evidence my lord Howard hath 
given, and there is nothing has been said does at all 
invalidate it. The sending of Aaron Smith into Scot- 
land, and his going, and the coming of these men, 
and their endeavouring to make their escape, are 
mighty concurrent evidences with the whole evidence 
my lord Howard has given. Now, what objections 
are made against this evidence ? Truly, none at all. 
Here are persons of great quality have given their 
testimony, and they do not impeach my lord Howard 
in the least; but some do extremely confirm the 
truth of my lord Howard. My lord Anglesey gives 
you an account of a discourse at my lord of Bed- 
ford's ; that my lord Howard came in, and that my 
lord Howard should there comfort my lord of Bed- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 207 

ford, and enlarge in the commendations of his son, 
and say he was confident he knew nothing of the de- 
sign, and he must be innocent. Gentlemen, this is 
the nature of the most part of the evidence. My 
lord of Clare, his evidence is much the like ; that is, 
his denying that he knew of any plot. Now, here is 
my lord Howard, under, a guilt of high treason ; for 
he was one of those conspirators not yet discovered, 
nor no evidence of any discourse leading to any 
thing that should give occasion to him to protest his 
innocency : and, says he, I know nothing of the plot. 
You would have wondered if he should have been 
talking in all places his knowledge, and declaring 
himself: his denying of it under the guilt, when he 
was not accused, is nothing to his confession when 
he comes to be apprehended and taken for it. Here 
Mr. Philip Howard says, he had several discourses 
with him about this business, upon the breaking out 
of the plot, and that he advised him to make an ad- 
dress, and that this was a thing that would be very 
acceptable, and very much for their vindication ; and 
my lord Howard (he says) thanked him for his very 
good advice, and said, he would follow it : and pres- 
ently after, when my lord Russel was apprehended, 
Mr. Howard tells him the news that my lord Russel 
was taken; this was sudden to him. And what says 
he ? " We are all undone. ' * When my lord Russel, 
that was one of this council that was a secret council, 
and could not be traced but by some of themselves, 
when he is apprehended, then he falls out into this 
expression : "We are all undone." This is an ar- 
gument my lord Howard had a guilt upon him. 



208 THE TRIAL OP 

For, why were they all undone, that my lord Russel 
was apprehended, any more than upon the appre- 
hending the rest ? Yes, because my lord was one of 
the six, and now 'twas come to the knowing of that 
part of the conspiracy. It was traced to the council 
of six, which in all likelihood would break the neck 
of the design. Now though he put it off afterwards, 
saying, " I believe it is a sham plot," yet this was 
but a trivial put-off. And then, when Colonel Syd- 
ney is taken, the same witness, Mr. Howard, tells 
you, my lord was very sad and melancholy ; for then 
he had greater reason to lie under an apprehension 
of being detected. Therefore, gentlemen, this will 
rather confirm the truth of the evidence, than any 
way impeach it. Then (for I would repeat it all, 
though I think it hath no great weight in it) Dr. 
Burnet says, that after the plot, my lord Howard pre- 
tended he knew of no plot. This is no more than 
was testified by the other lords before ; and all it 
imports, is, that my lord did not discover himself to 
Dr. Burnet. But I would fain know, if my lord 
had told Dr. Burnet, had it not argued that he had 
great confidence in him, that he thought him a man 
lit to be trusted with such a secret : and unless the 
doctor desires to be thought such a man, himself 
must own 'tis no objection that my lord Howard did 
not tell him. Ducas' testimony is no more neither, 
that he protested he was innocent, and believed Co- 
lonel Sydney was innocent : and this was before my 
lord Howard discovered any thing of this plot. 
Then Colonel Sydney objects, this is by malice; 
my lord Howard owes him money, and seeks to pay 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 209 

his debts by taking away his life : and, in further 
prosecution of this malice, would have seized upon 
his goods. But the evidence does not receive such 
construction ; for my lord Howard only offered Co- 
lonel Sydney the civility of his house to protect his 
plate and goods. Now, gentlemen, there were two 
other witnesses, my lord Pagett, and Mr. Edward 
Howard; but they say no more than the rest of 
them, that he did protest his innocency, and Mr. 
Howard says, he advised him to make an address to 
the king. This, gentlemen, I repeat, not that it is 
material, but for no other reason, than because Co- 
lonel Sydney had produced it; and so we are to think 
he intended to make some use of it : but I can't see 
any inference to be drawn from it. There is one 
witness more, and that is Mr. Blake, to the credit of 
my lord Howard, who comes here and says, that 
when he discoursed about a pardon, my lord should 
say, that he had a warrant for his pardon, but that he. 
had not yet passed it, and could not yet ; and he ap- 
prehended the reason was, because the drudgery of 
swearing was not over. But this is but what my 
lord Howard had conjectured : first, it does not ap- 
pear, that there is any promise of pardon at all to my 
lord Howard, or any terms imposed on him. In the 
next place, whatever expectation he has of a pardon, 
he can't reasonably hope for it without making a clear 
discovery of all he knows : for to stifle his evidence 
he has given, is not a way to deserve a pardon of his 
prince. Therefore, gentlemen, whatever expres- 
sions were used, though he called it the drudgery of 

VOL. I. 2C 



210 THE TRIAL OF 

swearing, however unwilling he is to come to it, 
and though he gives it very many hard names, and 
might think it very harsh to come and own himself 
to be one of the conspirators, it might be irksome, 
and very irksome ; yet none of them tell you, that 
my lord Howard should say, that what he said was 
not true. Now he has come and given his evidence, 
and you have heard all these objections against it, 
and not one of them touch it in the least. 

I come, in the next place, to the other part of the 
evidence, the papers found in Colonel Sydney's 
house. And in the first place, he objects, they can't 
affect him ; for, says he, there is no proof they were 
found in my house, no proof they were written by 
me; for comparison of hands, that is nothing; and 
if they were proved to be mine, 'tis nothing at all to 
the purpose : they are an answer to a polemical dis- 
course, wherewith he entertained himself privately 
in his study. Why, you have observed, I know, 
that Sir Philip Lloyd in the first place swears, that 
by warrant from the secretary he searched his house, 
and he found the papers lying upon Colonel Sydney's 
table in his study, when he came in there ; and there 
is no ground nor colour for you to suspect other- 
wise than that they were there, and he found them 
there. For the surmise of the prisoner at the bar, 
that they might be laid there, 'tis so foreign and 
without ground, that by and by you will think there 
is nothing at all in it. In the next place, we prove 
Colonel Sydney's hand, and that by as much proof 
as the thing is capable of ; such a proof as in all cases 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 211 

hath been allowed; and that is, for men to come that 
know and are acquainted with the hand- writing, and 
swear they know his hand- writing, and they believe 
this to be his hand. You have heard from Mr. 
Sheppard, a man that used to transact business for 
him, pay money for him ; and Mr. Cooke, and Mr. 
Cary, men of known credit in the city of London,, 
that have had the like dealings with Colonel Sydney, 
and they swear this is his hand- writing, as they 
verily believe. So that, gentlemen, this proof to 
you of Colonel Sydney's hand- writing, does verify 
Sir Philip Lloyd, that these papers must be found 
there, if Colonel Sydney writ them: and then this 
being found, that they were writ by him, the next 
thing will be, how far this will be an evidence to 
prove his compassing and imagining the death of 
the king. Compassing and imagining the death of 
the king, is the act of the mind, and is treason whilst 
it remains secret in the heart r though no such trea- 
son can be punished, because there is no way to 
prove it : but when once there is any overt act, that 
is, any thing that does manifest and declare such in- 
tention, then the law takes hold of it, and punishes 
it as high treason. 

Now after this evidence, I think no man will 
doubt, whether it was in the heart of the prisoner at 
the bar to destroy the king. But first he objects, 
that this is a part of a book, and unless you take the 
whole, nothing can be made of it; as it is in wrest- 
ing of texts of scripture, says he, you may as well 
say, that David says there is no God, because 



212 THE TRIAL OF 

David hath said, ' The fool hath said in his heart 
there is no God.'' But, gentlemen, the application 
won't hold; for you see a long discourse hath been 
read to you, a continued thread of argument; 'tis 
not one proposition, but a whole series of argument: 
these are the positions, ' ' That the king derives all his 
power from the people; that 'tis originally in the 
people, and the measure of subjection must be ad- 
judged by the Parliament; and if the king does fall 
from doing his duty, he must expect the people will 
exact it." And this he has laid down as no way 
prejudicial to him; for, says he, the king may refuse 
the crown, if he does not like it upon these terms. 
But, says he, if he does accept it, he must expect 
the performance will be exacted, or revenge taken 
by those he hath betray 'd. Then next he sets up 
an objection, and then argues against it: Ay, but 
shall the people be judge in their own cause? And 
thus he answers: It must be so; for is not the king 
a judge in his own cause? How can any man else be 
tried, or convicted of any offence, if the king may 
not be judge in his own cause? for to judge by a 
man's self, or by his deputy, is the same thing ; and 
so a crime against the king can't be punished. And 
then he takes notice of it as a very absurd position, 
that the king shall j udge in his own cause ; and not 
the people. That would be to say, "The servant 
entertained by the master, shall judge the master, 
but the master shall not judge the servant." Gen- 
tlemen, after this sort of argument he comes to this 
settled position : * ' We may therefore, says he, 
change, or take away kings (without breaking any 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 213 

yoke, or that is made a yoke which ought not to be 
one) ; the injury is therefore in imposing the yoke, 
and there can be none at all in breaking of it." But 
he goes on in his book, and that is by way of answer 
to an objection, That if there be no injury, yet there 
may be inconvenience, if the headless multitude 
should shake off the yoke. But, says he, I would 
fain know how the multitude comes to be headless : 
and there he gives many instances in story ; and 
from foreign nations he comes home to the English, 
and tells you how all rebellions in latter ages have 
been headed; and tells you the Parliament is the 
head, or the nobility and gentry that compose it ; 
and when the king fails in his duty, the people may 
call it. The multitude therefore is never headless, 
but they either find or create an head. So that here 
is a plain and an avowed principle of rebellion estab- 
lished upon the strongest reason he has to back it. 
Gentlemen, this with the other evidence that hath 
been given, will be sufficient to prove his compass- 
ing the death of the king. You see the affirmations 
he makes : when kings do break their trust, they may 
be called to account by the people. This is the doc- 
trine he broaches and argues for: he says in his 
book in another part, that the calling and dissolving 
of Parliaments is not in the king's power. Gentle- 
men, you all know how many Parliaments the king 
hath called and dissolved; if it be not in his power, 
he hath done that that was not irr his power, and so 
contrary to his trust. Gentlemen, at the entrance 
into this conspiracy they were under an apprehension 
that their liberties were invaded; as you hear in the 



S14 TB£ TRIAL Ot 

evidence of my lord Howard, that they were just 
making the insurrection upon that tumultuous oppo- 
sition of electing of sheriffs in London. They enter 
into a consultation to raise arms against the king ; 
and it is proved by my lord Howard, that the pris- 
oner at the bar was one. Gentlemen, words spoken 
upon a supposition will be high treason, as was held 
in king James' time, in the case of Collins, in Roll's 
Reports, " the king being excommunicate, maybe 
deposed and murdered," without affirming he was 
excommunicated: and this was enough to convict 
him of high treason. Now, according to that case, 
to say, the king having broken his trust, may be de- 
posed by his people, would be high treason ; but 
here he does as good as affirm the king had broke his 
trust, when every one sees the king hath dissolved 
Parliaments : this reduces it to an affirmation. And 
though this book be not brought to that council to 
be perused, and there debated, yet it will be another, 
and more than two witnesses, against the prisoner : 
for I would ask any man, suppose a man was in a 
room, and there were two men, and he talks with 
both apart, and he comes to one and endeavours to 
persuade him that it is lawful to rise in arms against 
the king, if so be he break his trust ; and he should 
go to another man, and tell him the king hath broken 
his trust, and we must seek some way to redress 
ourselves, and persuade the people to rise; these two 
witnesses do so tack this treason together, that they 
will be two witnesses to prove him guilty of high 
treason. And you have heard one witness prove it 
positively to you, that he consulted to rise in arms 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 215 

against the king, and here is his own book says, 
it is lawful for a man to rise in arms against the 
king, if he break his trust ; and in effect he hath 
said, the king hath broken his trust : therefore 
this will be a sufficient demonstration what the 
imagination of the heart of this man was, that it wa9 
nothing but the destruction of the king and the gov- 
ernment, and indeed of all governments. There can 
be no such thing as government if the people shall 
be judge in the case : for what so uncertain as 
the heady and giddy multitude ? Gentlemen, I think 
this will be a sufficient evidence of his consulting the 
death of the king. You have here the prisoner at 
the bar that is very deep in it. Indeed some men 
may by passion be transported into such an offence, 
and though the offence be never the less, whatever 
the motives are, yet in some it is less dangerous : 
for those that venture, upon passion, to raise com- 
motions and rebellion, are not always so much upon 
their guard, but that they may make some false steps 
to entrap themselves ; but this gentleman proceeds 
upon a surer foundation, it his reason, it is his prin- 
ciple, it is the guide of all his actions, it is that by 
which he leads and directs the steady course of his 
life. A man convinced of these principles, and that 
walks accordingly, what won't he do to accomplish 
his designs ? How wary will he be in all his actions ? 
-still reasoning with himself which way to bring it 
most securely about. Gentlemen, this is the more 
dangerous conspiracy in this man, by how much the 
more it is rooted in him : and how deep it is, you 
hear f when a man shall write as his principle, that it 



216 THE TRIAL 01 

is lawful for to depose kings, they breaking their 
trust, and that the revolt of the whole nation cannot 
be called rebellion. It will be a very sad case when 
people act thus according to their consciences, and 
do all this for the good of the people, as they would 
have it thought ; but this is the principle of this 
man. Gentlemen, we think we have plainly made 
it out to you, and proved it sufficiently, that it was 
the imagination of his heart to destroy the king, and 
made sufficient proof of high treason. 

Col. Sydney. Give me leave, my lord, to say a 
very few words. I desire Mr. Solicitor would not 
think it his duty to take away men's lives any how : 
first, we have had along story 

L. C. J. Nay, Mr. Sydney, we must not have 
vying and revying. I asked you before, what you 
had to say: the course of evidence is, after the 
king's counsel have concluded, we never admit the 
prisoner to say any thing. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, it was a wise man said, 
there never could be too much delay in the life of a 
man: I know the king's counsel may conclude if 
they please. Mr. Solicitor, I would not have him 
think that is enough, by one way or another, to 
bring a man to death : my lord, this matter of Sir 
Henry Vane is utterly misrepresented 

L. C. /. I must tell you, gentlemen of the jury, 
that what the prisoner says that is not proved, and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 217 

What the king's counsel have said, of which there is 
no proof to make it out, must not be taken into any 
consideration. 

Col. Sydney. Then, my lord, here is a place or 
two in old Hales' {turning over my lordHaW's book'] 
for the overt act of one treason not being an overt 
act of another. Your lordship knows Coke and 
Hales were both against it. \He reads. ~\ " Com- 
passing by bare words is not an overt act ; con- 
spiring to levy war is no overt act." 

Mr. Sol. Gen. I desire but one word more for 
my own sake, as well as for the prisoner's, and that 
is, that if I have said any thing that is not law, or 
misrepeated or misapplied the evidence which hath 
been given, I do make it my humble request to your 
lordship to rectify those mistakes, as well in point of 
fact, as point of law; for God forbid the prisoner 
should suffer by any mistake ! 

L. C. J. Gentlemen, the evidence has been long, 
and it is a cause of great concernment, and it is far 
from the thoughts of the king, or from the thoughts 
or desire of any of his judges here, to be instru- 
mental to take away the life of any man that by law 
his life ought not to be taken away. For I had rather 
many guilty men should escape, than one innocent 
man suffer. The question is, Whether upon all the 
evidence you have heard against the prisoner, and 
the evidence on his behalf, there is evidence sufficient 

vol. i. 2 p 



218 ■, THE TRIAL OF 

to convict the prisoner of the high treason he stands 
charged with. And as you must not be moved by 
the denial of the prisoner further than as it is backed 
with proof, so you are not to be inveigled by any in- 
sinuations made out against the prisoner at the bar, 
further or otherwise than as the proof is made out to 
you. But it is usual, and it is a duty incumbent on 
the king's counsel to urge against all such criminals, 
whatsoever they observe in the evidence against 
them, and likewise to endeavour to give answers to 
the objections that are made on their behalf. And 
therefore, since we have been kept so long in this 
cause, it won't be amiss for me and my brothers, as 
they shall think fit, to help your memory in the fact, 
and discharge that duty that is incumbent upon the 
court as to the points of law. 

This indictment is for high treason, and is 
grounded upon the statute of 25 E. 3. by which stat- 
ute the compassing and imagining the death of the 
king, and declaring the same by an overt act, is made 
high treason. The reason of that law was, because 
at common law there was great doubt what was 
treason ; wherefore, to reduce that high crime to a 
certainty, was that law made, that those that were 
guilty might know what to expect. And there are 
several acts of Parliament made between the time of 
Edward the Third, and that of 1 M. but by that 
statute, all treasons that are not enumerated by after 
acts of Parliament, remain as they were declared by 
that statute of 25 E. 3. And so are challenges, and 
other matters insisted upon by the prisoner, left as 



ALGERNON" SYDNEY. 219 

they were at the time of that act. I am also to tell 
you, that in point of law, it is not only the opinion 
of us here, but the opinion of them that sat before 
us, and the opinion of all the judges of England, and 
within the memory of many of you, that though there 
be two witnesses required to prove a man guilty of 
high treason ; yet it is not necessary there should be 
two witnesses to the same thing at one time. But, 
if two witnesses prove two several facts that have a 
tendency to the same treason, they are two witnesses 
sufficient to convict any man of high treason. In the 
case of my lord Stafford, in Parliament, all the judges 
assisting, it is notoriously known, that one witness 
to a conspiracy in England, and another to a con- 
spiracy in France, were held two witnesses sufficient 
to convict him of high treason. In the next place, 
I am to tell you, that though some judges have been 
of opinion, that words of themselves were not an 
overt act; but my lord Hales, nor my lord Coke, 
nor any other of the sages of the law, ever ques- 
tioned but that a letter would be an overt act, suffi- 
cient to prove a man guilty of high treason ; for, 
scribere est agere. Mr. Sydney says, the king is a 
politic person ; but you must destroy him in his nat- 
ural capacity, or it is not treason. But I must tell 
you, if any man compass to imprison the king, it is 
high treason : so was the case of my lord Cobham. 
^A.nd my lord Coke, when he says, If a man do at- 
tempt to make the king do any thing by force and 
compulsion, otherwise than he ought to do, that it is 
high treason within that act of 25 E. 3 ; but if it were 
an indictment only for the levying of war, there 



220 THE TRIAL OF 

must be an actual war levied. But this is an indict- 
ment for compassing the death of the king ; and the 
other treason mentioned in that act of Parliament, for 
the levying war, may be given in evidence to prove 
the conspiring the king's death : for 'tis rightly told 
you by the king's counsel, that the imagination of a 
man's heart is not to be discerned; but if I declare 
such my imagination by an overt act, which overt 
act does naturally evince that the king must be de- 
posed, destroyed, imprisoned, or the like, it will be 
sufficient evidence of treason within that act. 

In the next place, having told you what the law is, 
for, gentlemen, 'tis our duty upon our oaths, to de- 
clare the law to you, and you are bound to receive 
our declaration of the law ; and upon this declaration, 
to enquire whether there be a fact sufficiently proved, 
to find the prisoner guilty of the high treason of 
which he stands indicted : and for that I must tell 
you, whatever happens to be hearsay from others, it 
is not to be applied immediately to the prisoner ; 
but, however, those matters that are remote at first, 
may serve for this purpose, to prove there was gener- 
ally a conspiracy to destroy the king and govern- 
ment : and for that matter, you all remember, it was 
the constant rule and method observed about the 
Popish plot, first to produce the evidence of the plot 
in general : this was done in that famous case of my 
lord Stafford in Parliament. Gentlemen, I am also 
to tell you, this alone does not at all affect the pris- 
6ner at the bar, but is made use of as a circumstance 
to support the credibility of the witnesses, and is 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 221 

thus far applicable to the business before you ; that 
'tis plain by persons that don't touch the prisoner at 
the bar (and I am sorry any man makes a doubt of it 
at this time of day) that there was a conspiracy to 
kill the king; for after so full a proof in this place, 
and in others, and the execution and confession of 
several of the offenders, I am surprised to observe 
that the prisoner at the bar, and some others present, 
seem not to believe it. 

But, gentlemen, you hear the first witness, I speak 
of West : he tells you he had the honour to be ac- 
quainted with Mr. Sydney, and that he had discourse 
with Mr. Walcot, a person convicted and executed 
for this horrid conspiracy; Why, says he, he told 
me at my chamber, that they were not only the per- 
sons concerned, but that there were other persons of 
great quality that had their meetings for the carrying 
on the business in other places. And Ferguson, 
that was the ringleader in this conspiracy, told him 
there was a design of a general insurrection ; it was 
once laid down, but is now taken up again. There 
are other counsellors of great importance ; and he 
names, among the rest, the prisoner at the bar. Mr. 
West goes a little further, and he tell you this : says 
he, He did not only tell me so, but that there was a 
design to conciliate a correspondence with some per- 
sons in Scotland, and they were to do it under the 
cant of having business in Carolina. There is Mr. 
Keeling, he tells you too, there was a design for a 
general and public insurrection ; that he was present 
with the Goodenoughs, one and t'other; and that 



222 THE TRIAL OF 

they had taken upon them to divide, and did divide 
the city into such and such districts. And what was 
the business ? It was, that there might be a general 
insurrection ; might be an insurrection, not only to 
destroy the king and the duke, but to destroy all the 
king's loyal subjects ; and, in taking away their 
lives, to take away the life of monarchy itself, and to 
subvert the religion established by law. Then 
comes in colonel Rumsey, and he gives you an ac- 
count that he heard of such things in Mr. West's 
chamber ; and tells you he had received such intelli- 
gence. And all these give you an account that there 
was such a design to kill the king ; and this is the 
substance of the general evidence produced to prove 
the conspiracy. 

Then to make this matter come home to the pris- 
oner at the bar, first my lord Howard gives you an 
account, and does directly swear, that about the 
middle or latter end of January last, he happened to 
meet with Colonel Sydney, the prisoner at the bar, 
and the duke of Monmouth (they were the persons 
first began to have discourse about this matter); and 
how they met with a disappointment; the thing had 
slept a great while, and that it was fit it should be 
revived again ; and that persons of quality were men- 
tioned, who were to have an immediate care in the 
carrying on of the business, and that it should not 
be divulged to too many : accordingly there was my 
lord Russel, my lord of Essex, my lord of Salisbury, 
and Mr. Hambden named. He tells you, the pris- 
oner at the bar undertook for my lord of Essex and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 223" 

Mr. Hambden; and he tells you, the duke of Mon- 
mouth undertook for my lord Russel and the rest; 
and that was the result of one meeting. He goes 
yet further: that, pursuant to this, it was commu- 
nicated to those persons so to be engaged, and the 
place and time was appointed ; the place, Mr. Hamb- 
den's house ; but is not so possitive to the time, but 
only to the place, and persons. He says, all these 
persons met, and he gives you an account that Mr. 
Hambden, because it was necessary for some persons 
to break silence, gave some short account of the de- 
sign of their meeting, and made some reflections upon 
the mischiefs that attended the government, and what 
apprehensions many people had upon the late choice 
of sheriffs, and that there had been a mal-administra- 
tion of public justice ; that it was fit some means 
should be used to redress these grievances. He can't 
tell you positively, what this man or that man said 
there ; but says, that all did unanimously consent to 
what was then debated about an insurrection ; and in 
order to it, they discoursed about the time when it 
should be ; and that they thought fit it should be done 
suddenly, when men's minds were wound up to that 
height, as they then were; and, as the first witness 
tells you, there was a consideration, whether it should 
be at one place or at several places together. He says, 
then it was taken into consideration, that this could 
not be carried on but there must be arms and ammu- 
nition provided. The next step is about a necessary 
concern, the concern money, and therefore our law 
calls money 'the sinew T s of war/ My lord Howard 
tells you, that the duke of Monmouth proposed 



224 THE TRIAL OF 

25 or 30,0001. ; that my lord Grey was to advance 
10,0001. out of his own estate : but then they thought 
to make their party more strong by the assistance of 
a discontented people in Scotland, my lord of Argyll 
and Sir John Cockram, and several other people 
there, to join with them; that, pursuant to this, they 
all after met at my lord Russel's; and the same de- 
bate is re-assumed, and among the rest, this parti- 
cular thing of conciliating a friendship with the Scots ; 
the Campbells, my lord of Argyll, and my lord Mel- 
vin were particularly mentioned : that Colonel Syd- 
ney took upon himself to find out a messenger, but 
it was my lord Russel's part to w r rite the letter. One 
of the messengers named to convey the same was 
Aaron Smith ; he was known, says my lord Howard, 
to some of us ; and then we all agreed that Aaron 
Smith was the most proper man : upon this they 
brake up that very time. Afterwards comes my 
lord Howard to Colonel Sydney, at some distance of 
time, and he comes to him, and shews him threescore 
guineas, and told him, he was going into the city, 
and that they were to be given to Aaron Smith. He 
tells you after this, that he had some other discourse, 
about a fortnight or three weeks after, with Colonel 
Sydney ; and that Colonel Sydney did take notice 
that he had sent him, and that he had an account of 
him, as far as Newcastle. So that 'tis very plain, 
that it was not sudden and rash thoughts ; it is a little 
more than according to the language we meet with 
in some pamphlets of late, more than heats and stirs. 
Gentlemen, then, I must tell you, here are circum- 
stances proved in pursuance of this design, for Sir 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 225 

Andrew Foster informs you, how that Sir John 
Cockram and the Campbells, and one Monro, as I 
take it, came to town, and that he had discourse with 
some of them about their business of coming out of 
Scotland ; and he says, they pretended it was about 
business of some trade to Carolina ; which does still 
corroborate the evidence. He tells you likewise, 
that there being a noise of discovering the plot, they 
began to hide; Sir John Cockram began to hide, and 
skulk from place to place : they came first with that 
cant in their mouths about Carolina. The messen- 
ger, Atterbury, tells you, when they came to take 
these men, how they shuffled from place to place. 

So, gentlemen, I must tell you, that in case there 
be but one witness to prove a direct treason, and 
another witness to a circumstance that contributes to 
that treason, that will make two witnesses to prove 
the treason. Because I would explain my mind : 
not long ago all the judges of England were com- 
manded to meet together, and one that is the senior 
of the king's counsel was pleased to put this case : 
If I buy a knife of J. S. to kill the king, and it be 
proved by one witness I bought a knife for this pur- 
pose, and another comes and proves I bought such a 
knife of J. S. they are two witnesses sufficient to prove 
a man guilty of high treason : and so it was held by 
all the judges of England then present, in the presence 
of all the king's counsel. And therefore Mr. Sydney 
is mightily mistaken in the law : for in case of any 
treason (except the treason at the bar) or in treason 

VOL. I. 2 E 



226 THE TRIAL OF 

for clipping and coining, one witness is sufficient at 
this day. 

Now, gentlemen, supposing all this should not be 
sufficient, here is a libel, and it is a most traitorous 
and seditious libel. If you believe that that was Co- 
lonel Sydney's book, writ by him, no man can doubt 
but it is a sufficient evidence that he is guilty of 
compassing and imagining the death of the king ; 
and let us consider what proof can be greater than 
what has been given of it. Mr. Sheppard, an intimate 
acquaintance of his, that has seen him write, he looks 
upon the hand, and says, he is extremely acquainted 
with the hand ; and, says he, I believe in my con- 
science this book is Colonel Sydney's hand. Gen- 
tlemen, do you expect Mr. Sydney would call a 
witness to be by to see him write that book ? In the 
next place, you have two tradesmen, Coke and Cary, 
and they tell you, one had seen him write once, the 
other had seen his hand-writing ; and they have good 
reason, for they have paid several sums of money, 
upon notes which they took, as well as this, to be 
his hand- writing. Gentlemen, besides that, give me 
leave to tell you, here is another thing that makes it 
more plain. This very book is found in Colonel 
Sydney's house, on the table in his study, where he 
used to write, by a gentleman against whom Colonel 
Sydney can't make the least objection ; and that 
there was that fairness offered by the gentleman, 
" Pray, Colonel, put your seal upon it, that you may 
see that no injury be done you." But Mr. Sydney 
would not do it. Therefore he seals them with his 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 227 

own seal, and carries them to Whitehall, where they 
were broken open : and swears that those papers 
were found in his closet, whereof this was one. 
Another thing which I must take notice of to you in 
this case is, to mind you, how this book contains all 
the malice, and revenge, and treason, that mankind 
can be guilty of: it fixes the sole power in the Par- 
liament and the people ; so that he carries on the de- 
sign still, for their debates at their meetings were to 
that purpose. And such doctrines as these suit with 
their debates ; for there a general insurrection was 
designed, and that was discoursed of in this book, 
and encouraged. They must not give it an ill name : 
it must not be called a rebellion, it being the general 
act of the people. The king, it says, is responsible 
to them, the king is but their trustee ; that he had 
betrayed his trust, he had misgoverned, and now he 
is to give it up, that they may be all kings them- 
selves. Gentlemen, I must tell you, I think I ought 
more than ordinarily to press this upon you, because 
I know the misfortune of the late unhappy rebellion, 
and the bringing the late blessed king to the scaffold, 
was first begun by such kind of principles : they 
cried, he had betrayed the trust that was delegated 
to him from the people. Gentlemen, in the next 
place, because he is afraid their power alone won't 
do it, he endeavours to poison men's judgments ; 
and the way he makes use of, he colours it with re- 
ligion, and quotes scripture for it too ; and you know 
how far that went in the late times ; how we were 
for " binding our king in chains, and our nobles in 
fetters of iron." Gentlemen, this is likewise made 



228 THE TRIAL OF 

use of by him to stir up the people to rebellion. 
Gentlemen, if in case the prisoner did design the de- 
posing the king, the removing the king, and if, in 
order thereunto, he be guilty of conspiring to levy 
war, or, as to the letter writ by my lord Russel, if 
he was privy to it, these will be evidences against 
him. So that 'tis not upon two, but 'tis upon 
greater evidence than twenty-two, if you believe this 
book was writ by him. Next I must tell you, gen- 
tlemen, upon, I think, a less testimony, an indict- 
ment was preferred against the late lord Russel, and 
he was thereupon convicted and executed ; of which 
they have brought the record. These are the evi- 
dences for die king. 

For the prisoner, he hath made several objections ; 
as, that there was no war levied : for that, gentle- 
men, at the beginning of the cause, I told you what 
I took the law to be, and I take it to be so very 
plainly. But, gentlemen, as to the credibility of my 
lord Howard, he offers you several circumstances. 
First, he offers you a noble lord, my lord Anglesey, 
who says, that he, attending my lord of Bedford, 
upon the misfortune of the imprisonment of his son; 
after he had done, my lord Howard came to second 
that part of a christian's office which he had per- 
formed ; and told him, he had a very good son, and 
he knew no harm of him ; and as to the plot, he 
knew nothing of it. Another noble lord, my lord 
Clare, tells you, that he had some discourse with my 
lord Howard, and he said, that if he were accused, 
he thought they would but tell noses, and his busi- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 229 

ness was done. Then Mr. Philip Howard, he tells 
you, how he was not so intimate with him as others, 
but he often came to his brother's ; and that he 
should say, he knew nothing of a plot, nor did he be- 
lieve any ; but at the same time he said, he believed 
there was a sham plot : and then he pressed him 
about the business of the address ; but that now my 
lord of Essex was out of town, and so it went off. 
Another thing Mr. Sydney took notice of; says he, 
'Tis an act of revenge in my lord Howard, for he 
owes him a debt ; that he does, besides by his alle- 
gation, does not appear. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, he hath confessed it. 

Z. C. /. Admit it; yet in case Colonel Sydney 
should be convicted of this treason, the debt accrues 
to the king, and he can't be a farthing the better for 
it. But how does it look like revenge? I find my 
lord Howard, when he speaks of Colonel Sydney, 
says, he was more beholding to him than any body, 
and was more sorry for him; so says my lord Clare. 
Gentlemen, you have it likewise offered, that he 
came to Colonel Sydney's house, and there he was 
desirous to have the plate and goods removed to his 
house, and that he would assist them with his coach 
and coachman to carry them thither; and did affirm 
that he knew nothing of the plot ; and did not be- 
lieve Colonel Sydney knew any thing: and this is 
likewise proved by a couple of maid- servants, as well 
as the Frenchman ; you have likewise something to 
the same purpose, said by my lord Paget : and this 



230 THE TRIAL OF 

is offered to take off the credibility of my lord How- 
ard. Do you believe, because my lord Howard did 
not tell them, I am in a conspiracy to kill the king ; 
therefore he knew nothing of it ? He knew these 
persons were men of honour, and would not be con- 
cerned in any such thing. But do you think, be- 
cause a man goes about and denies his being in a 
plot, therefore he was not in it ? Nay, it seems so 
far from being an evidence of his innocence, that 
'tis an evidence of his guilt. What should provoke 
a man to discourse after this manner, if he had not 
apprehensions of guilt within himself? This is the 
testimony offered against my lord Howard, in dis- 
paragement of his evidence. Ay, but further it is 
objected, he is in expectation of a pardon : and he 
did say, he thought he should not have the king's 
pardon, till such time as the drudgery of swearing 
was over. Why, gentlemen, I take notice, before 
this discourse happened, he swore the same thing at 
my lord Russel's trial. And I must tell you, though 
it is the duty of every man to discover all treasons ; 
yet I tell you, for a man to come and swear himself 
over and over guilty, in the face of a court of jus- 
tice, may seem irksome, and provoke a man to give 
it such an epithet. 'Tis therefore for his credit, that 
he is an unwilling witness : but, gentlemen, consider 
if these things should have been allowed to take away 
the credibility of a witness, what would have become 
of the testimonies that have been given of late days? 
What would become of the evidence of all those 
that have been so profligate in their lives ? Would 
you have the king's counsel to call none but men 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 231 

that were not concerned in this plot, to prove that 
they were plotting ? Ay, but, gentlemen, it is further 
objected, this hand looks like an old hand, and it may 
not be the prisoner's hand, but be counterfeited ; 
and for that there is a gentlemen who tells you what 
a dextrous man he is. He says, he believes he could 
counterfeit any hand in half an hour : 'tis an ugly 
temptation, but I hope he hath more honour than to 
make use of that art he so much glories in. But 
what time could there be for the counterfeiting this 
book? Can you imagine that Sir Philip Lloyd, 
through the bag sealed up, did it? Or, who else, 
can you imagine should, or does the prisoner pre- 
tend did, write this book ? So that on one side, 
God forbid but we should be careful of men's lives ! 
so on the other side, God forbid that flourishes and 
varnish should come to endanger the life of the king, 
and the destruction of the government ! But, gentle- 
men, we are not to anticipate you in point of fact : I 
have, according to my memory, recapitulated the 
matters given in evidence : it remains purely in you 
now, whether you do believe upon the whole matter, 
that the prisoner is guilty of the high treason whereof 
he is indicted. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. Gentlemen, 'tis fit you should 
have our opinions : In all the points of law we con- 
cur with my lord chief justice.... Says Colonel Syd- 
ney, Here is a mighty conspiracy, but there is no- 
thing comes of it. Who must we thank for that? 
None but the Almighty Providence.... One of them- 
selves was troubled in conscience, and comes and 



232 



THE TRIAL OF 



discovers it. Had not Keeling discovered it, God 
knows whether we might have been alive at this day. 
....[Then the jury withdrew, and in about half an 
hour's time returned, and brought the prisoner in 
guilty. ...And the lieutenant of the Tower took 
away his prisoner. ~\ 



MONDAY, NOV. 26, 1683, 



Algernon Sydney ivas brought up to the bar of 
the court of king's -bench, to receive his sentence. 



L.C.J. Mr. Attorney, will you move any thing ? 

Mr. Att. Gen. My lord, the prisoner at the bar 
is convicted of high treason, I demand judgment 
against him. 

Clerk of the Crown. Algernon Sydney, holdup 
thy hand. [Which he did.~\ Thou hast been in- 
dicted for high treason, and thereupon arraigned, 
and thereunto pleaded not guilty ; and, for thy trial, 
put thyself upon God, and the country, which coun- 
try has found thee guilty ; what can'st thou say for 
thyself, why judgment of death should not be given 
against thee, and execution awarded according to law? 



Col. Sydney. My lord, I humbly conceive I have 
had no trial. I was to be tried by my country : I 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 233 

do not find my country in the jury that did try me. 
There were some of them that were not freeholders. 
I think, my lord, there is neither law nor precedent 
of any man that has been tried by a jury, upon an in- 
dictment laid in a country, that were not freeholders. 
So I do humbly conceive that I have had no trial at 
all ; and if I have had no trial, there can be no 
judgment. 

L. C. /. Mr. Sydney, you had the opinion of 
the court in that matter before ; we were unanimous 
in it, for it was the opinion of all the judges of Eng- 
land in the case next preceding yours, though that 
was a case relating to corporations; but they were 
of opinion, that by the statute of Queen Mary, the 
trial of treason was put as it was at common law, 
and that there was no such challenge at common law. 

Col. Sydney. Under favour, my lord, I presume 
in such a case as this, of life, and for what I know, 
concerns every man in England, you will give me a 
day and counsel to argue it. 

L. C. J. 'Tis not in the power of the court to 
doit. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire the indictment 
against me may be read. 

L.C. J. To what purpose ? 

Col. Sydney. I have somewhat to say to it. 

VOL. I» 2 F 



234 THE TP.IAL 0£ 

L. C. J. Well, read the indictment. [Then the 
clerk of the crown read the indictment. ~\ 

Col. Sydney. Pray, sir, will you give me leave 
to see it, if it please you. 

L. C. J. No, that we cannot do. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, there is one thing then 
that makes this absolutely void; it deprives the king 
of his title, which is treason by law : defensor jidei> 
there is no such thing there, if I heard it right. 

L. C. J. In that you would deprive the king of 
his life, that is in very full, I think. 

Col. Sydney. If nobody would deprive the king, 
no more than I, he would be in no danger. Under 
favour, these are things not to be over-ruled in point 
of life, so easily. 

L. C. J. Mr. Sydney, we very well understand 
our duty, we don't need to be told by you what our 
duty is : we tell you nothing but what is law : and 
if you make objections that are immaterial, we must 
over-rule them. Don't think that we over-rule in 
your case, that we would not over-rule in all men's 
cases in your condition. The treason is sufficiently 
laid. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I conceive this too, that 
those words, that are said to be written in the paper. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 235 

that there is nothing of treason in them ; besides that, 
there was nothing at all proved of them, only by sim- 
ilitude of hands, which, upon the case I aliedged 
to your lordship, was not to be admitted in a criminal 
case. Now 'tis easy to call a thing proditory ; but 
yet let the nature of the thing be examined ; I put 
myself upon it, that there is no treason in it. 

L. C. /. There is not a line in the book scarce, 
but what is treason. 

Mr. Just. Wy thins. I believe, you don't believe 
it treason. 

L. C. J. That is the worst part of your case : 
when men are riveted in opinion that kings may be 
deposed, that they are accountable to their people, 
that a general insurrection is no rebellion, and justify 
it, 'tis high time, upon my word, to call them to 
account. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, the other day I had a 
book, wherein I had King James' speech, upon which 
all that is there, is grounded in his own speech to 
the Parliament in 1603 ; and there is nothing in these 
papers, which is called a book, though it never ap- 
peared ; for if it were true, it was only papers 
found in a private man's study, never shewed to any 
body ; and Mr. Attorney takes this to bring it to a 
crime, in order to some other counsel ; and this was 
to come out such a time when the insurrection brake 
out. My lord, there is one person I did not know 



236 THE TRIAL OF 

where to find then, but every body knows where to 
find now, that is the duke of Monmouth : if there 
had been any thing in consultation, by this means to 
bring any thing about, he must have known of it, for 
it must be taken to be in prosecution of those designs 
of his : and if he will say there ever was any such 
thing, or knew any thing of it, I will acknowledge 
whatever you please. 

L. Cm J. That is over ; you were tried for this 
fact : we must not send for the duke of Monmouth. 

Col. Sydney. I humbly think I ought, and de- 
sire to be heard upon it. 



L. C. /. Upon what ? 

Col. Sydney. If you will call it a trial. 

L. Cm J. I do : the law calls it so. 



Mr. Just. Wythins. We must not hear such dis- 
courses, after you have been tried here, and the jury 
have given their verdict ; as if you had not justice 
done you. 

Mr. Just. Holloway. I think it was a very fair 
trial. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I desire that you would 
hear my reasons why I should be brought to a new 
trial. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 237 

L. C. J That can't be. 

Col. Sydney. Be the trial what it will ? 

Clerk of the Crozvn. Cryer, make an O yes. 

Col. Sydney. Can't I be heard, my lord ? 

L. C. J. Yes, if you will speak that which is 
proper. 'Tis a strange thing, you seem to appeal 
as if you had some great hardship put upon you. I 
am sure, I can as well appeal as you. I am sure you 
had all the favour shewed you, that ever any prisoner 
had. The court heard you with patience, when you 
spake what was proper ; but if you begin to arraign 
the justice of the nation, it concerns the justice of 
the nation to prevent you ; we are bound by our 
consciences and our oaths to see right done you ; and 
though we are judges upon earth, we are accountable 
to the judge of heaven and earth; and we act accord- 
ing to our consciences, though we don't act accord- 
ing to your opinion. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I say, in the first place, 
I was brought to Westminster by habeas corpus, 
the 7th of this month, granted the day before, to be 
arraigned, when yet no bill was exhibited against me; 
and my prosecutors could not know it would be 
found, unless they had a correspondence with the 
grand jury ; which, under favour, ought not to have 
been had. 



238 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. We know nothing of it : you had as 
good tell us of somebody's ghost, as you did at the 
trial. 

Col. Sydney. I told you of two infamous persons 
that acted my lord Russel's ghost. 

L. C. J. Go on, if you have any thing else. 

Col. Sydney. I prayed a copy of the indictment, 
making my objections against it, and putting in a 
special plea, which the law, I humbly conceive, al- 
lowed me : the help of counsel to frame it was denied. 

L. C. J. For the copy of the indictment, it was 
denied in the case you cited. This favour shewed 
you to-day, was denied at any time to Sir Henry 
Vane, that is, to have the indictment read in Latin. 
Don't say on the other side, we refused your plea, 
I told you, have a care of putting it in. If the plea 
was such as Mr, Attorney did demur to it, I told you, 
you were answerable for the consequences of it. 

Mr. Just. Wythins. We told you, you might put 
it in; but you must put it in at your peril. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, I would have put it in. 

L. C. J. I did advertise you, if you put in a 
plea, upon your peril be it. I told you, we are 
bound by law to give you that fair advertisement of 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 239 

the great danger you would fall under, if it were not 
a good plea. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, my plea was, that could 

never hurt me. 

> 

L. C. /. We did not know that. 

Col. Sydney. I desire, my lord, this, that it may 
be considered, that, being brought here to my trial, 
I did desire a copy of my indictment, upon the 
statute of 46 E. 3. which does allow it to all men in 
all cases. 

L. C. J. I tell you, the law is otherwise, and 
told you so then, and tell you so now. 

CoL Sydney. Your lordship did not tell me, that 
was not a law. 

L. C. /. Unless there be a law particular for Co- 
lonel Sydney. If you have any more to say.... 

Col. Sydney. I am probably informed, and, if 
your lordship will give me time, shall be able to 
prove it, that the jury was not summoned as it ought 
to be : my lord, if this jury was not summoned by 
the bailiff, according to the ordinary way, but they 
Xvere agreed upon by the under-sheriffs, Graham and 
Burton, I desire to know, whether that be a good 
jury? 



240 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. We can take notice of nothing but 
what is upon the record. Here is a return by the 
sheriff, if there had been any indirect means used 
with the sheriff, or any else, you should have men- 
tioned it before they were sworn. 

Col. Sydney. Is there any thing in the world 
more irregular than that? 

L.C.J. I know nothing of it : that time is past. 

Col. Sydney. Now, my lord, all men are admit- 
ted on the jury. 

L. C. J. Why, you did not like gentlemen, and 
and now you don't like those that you had. In plain 
English, if any jury had found you guilty, it had 
been the same thing. It had been a good summons, 
if they had acquitted you. 

Col. Sydney. When the jury, thus composed, 
was sworn, four witnesses, of whom three were un- 
der the terror of death for treasons, were produced 
against me ; and they confessed themselves guilty of 
crimes of which I had no knowledge, and told stories 
by hearsay. And your lordship did promise, in 
summing up the evidence, that the jury should be in- 
formed what did reach me, and what not; and I 
don't remember that was done. 

L. C. J. I did it particularly ; I think I was as 
careful of it as possibly I could be. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 241 

Col. Sydney. My lord Howard being the only 
witness that said any thing against me ; papers, 
which were said to be found in my house, were pro- 
duced as another witness, and no other testimony 
given concerning them, but that the hand was Hke 
unto mine. No man can say, I read them or shewed 
them to any man. None knew when they were 
written ; the ink shewed they had been done many, 
and perhaps twenty or thirty years ; yea, some pas- 
sages were read out of them, without examining 
what went before and after. When I desired the 
whole might be read, it was refused, unless I spe- 
cified the passage, which I could not do, knowing 
not one word in them. When I alledged, that in 
criminal cases similitude of hands could not be taken 
for evidence, proposed my points of law concerning 
constructive treason, he. and I did conceive, that 
no court under the Parliament could be judges of it, 
and did desire the statute, which did so enact it, 
might be read, it could not be obtained : and I cited 
many judgments in Parliament. 

L. C. /. Mr. Sydney, if you arraign the justice 
of the nation so, as though we had denied you the 
methods of justice, I must tell you, you do what does 
not become you; for we denied you nothing that 
ought to have been granted. If we had granted you 
less, I think we had done more our duty. What 
points of law do you mean ? 

Col. Sydney. That of constructive treason, my 
lord. 

VOL. I. 2 G 



242 THE TRIAL OF 

L. C. J. We do not go upon constructive trea- 
son, *tis plain treason within 25 E. 3. 

Col. Sydney. Is writing an act ? 

L. C. J. Yes, 'tis agere. [Proclamation made 
for silence.'] 

Mr. Bamfield. Sir, I pray you to hear me one 
word as amicus curLe. I humbly suppose that your 
lordship will not give judgment if there be a ma- 
terial defect in the indictment: as the clerk did read 
it, he left out defensor Jidei, which is part of the 
style of his majesty. 

L. C. /. We have heard of it already ; we thank 
you for your friendship, and are satisfied. Mr. 
Sydney, there remains nothing for the court, but to 
discharge their duty, in pronouncing that judgment 
the law requires to be pronounced against all persons 
convicted of high treason ; and I must tell you, that 
though you seem to arraign the justice of the court, 
and the proceeding 

Col. Sydney. I must appeal to God and the world. 
I am not heard. 

L. C J. Appeal to whom you will. I could 
wish with all my heart, instead of appealing to the 
world, as though you had received something ex- 
treme hard in your case, that you would appeal to the 
great God of heaven, and consider the guilt you 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 245 

have contracted by the great offence you have com- 
mitted. I wish with all my heart, you would con- 
sider your condition ; but if your own ingenuity will 
not provoke you, nothing I can say will prevail with 
you to do it : if the king's general pardon, in which 
you had so great a share of the king's mercy, will 
not, I could wish that as a gentleman and as a chris- 
tian, you would consider under what particular obli- 
gations you lie to that gracious king that hath done 
much more for you. I should have thought it would 
have wrought in you such a temper of mind, as to 
have turned the rest of your life into a generous ac- 
knowledgment of his bounty and mercy, and not into 
a state of constant combining and writing, not only 
to destroy him, but to subvert the government ; and 
I am sorry to see you so earnest in the justification of 
the book, in which there is scarce a line but what 
contains the rankest treason, such as deposing the 
king : it not only encourages, but justifies all re- 
bellion. Mr. Sydney, you are a gentleman of 
quality, and need no counsel from me : if I could 
give you any, my charity to your immortal soul 
would provoke me to it. I pray, God season this 
affliction to you ! There remains nothing with the 
court, but to pronounce that judgment that is ex- 
pected, and the law requires, and therefore the judg- 
ment of the court is.... 

That you be carried hence to the place from zvhence 
you came, and from thence you shall be drawn upon 
an hurdle to the place of execution, ivhere you shall 
be hanged by the ?ieck 7 and, being alive, cut dozv?is 



244, THE TRIAL OF ETC. 

your privy members shall be cut off, and burned be- 
fore your face; your head severed from your body, 
and your body divided into four quarters; and they 
to be disposed at the pleasure of the king. And 
the God of infinite mercy have, mercy upon your 
soid ! 

Col. Sydney.. Then, O God, O God, I beseech 
thee to sanctifiy these sufferings unto me, and im- 
pute not my blood to the country, nor the city 
through which I am to be drawn ; let no inquisition 
be made for it; but if any, and the shedding of 
blood that is innocent must be revenged, let the 
weight of it fall upon those that maliciously perse- 
cute me for righteousness' sake. 

L. C. J. I pray God work in you a temper fit to 
go into the other world, for I see you are not fit for 
this. 

Col. Sydney. My lord, feel my pulse, [holding 
out his hand'] and see if I am disordered. I bless 
God, I never was in better temper than I am now. 
....[Then the lieutenant of the Tozver carried back 
his prisoner.] 



cije apotoop* 



OF 



ALGERNON SYDNEY, 



IN THE DAY OF HIS DEATH. 



Being ready to dye under an accusation of 
many crimes, I thought fit to leaue this as a testi- 
mony unto the world, that, as I had from my youth 
endeauoured to uphold the common rights of man- 
kind, the lawes of this land, and the Protestant re- 
ligion, against corrupt principles, arbitrary power, 
and Popery, I doe now willingly lay downe my life 
for the same ; and having a sure witnesse within me, 
that God doth absolue me, and uphold me in the 
utmost extremetyes, am uery littell sollicitous, though 
man doth condemne me. 

I am noe wayes ashamed to anote, that from the 
yeare 1642, untill the coming in of the king, I did 
prosecute the above-mentioned principles ; and hau- 

* The reader will find a difficulty in understanding some 
words and passages in this Apology, which, it is not improba- 
ble, was dictated to a Frenchman, Joseph Ducas, the same who 
gave evidence on the trial. 



246 THE APOLOGY OF 

ing then finished, to the aduantage of all Europe and 
the honour of this nation, a negociation, upon which 
I had been employed in the north, chose rather to 
remaine beyond the seas, than to returne into my 
owne country, though General Monk, upon account 
of many obligations receaued from me, did desire me 
to returne, with large offers of all aduantages he could 
procure for me. 

I well knew his power, and did not doubt of his 
intentions : but though I thought it my duty to sub- 
mit unto the prouidence of God, in the strange reuo- 
lutions brought amongst us, through the unsearch- 
able councels of his will, durst not recead from the 
ways of righteousnesse; and through his grace was 
enabled to reject the rewards of iniquity. 

It being acknowledged, that though I had euer 
opposed the then triumphing party, noe man had 
euer shewed himself to be a fairer enemy, and that I 
had done many personall and most important serui- 
ces, as well to the royall family as unto such as de- 
pended upon it, I hoped that noe man would search 
into my present thoughts, nor so far to remember my 
former actions, as to disturb me in a most innocent 
exile ; and that the most malicious of my enemyes 
should not pretend that I practiced any thing against 
the gouernment, I made Rome the place of my re- 
treat, which was certainly an ill scene to act any 
thing that was displeasing unto it. 

But I soon found, that no inofFensiuenesse of be- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 247 

hauiour could preserue me against the malice of 
thoes who sought to destroy me ; and was deffended 
from such as there designed to assassinate me, only 
by the charity of strangers. 

When the care of my priuate affaires brought me 
into Flanders and Holland, anno 1663, the same 
dangers accompanied me ; and, that no place might 
be safe unto me, Andrew White, with some others, 
were sent into the most remote parts of Germany, to 
murther me. 

The asperity of this persecution obliged me to 
seek the protection of somme forraine princes ; and 
being then in the strength of my age, had reputation 
enough to haue gained honourable imployments; but 
all my designes were broken by letters and messages 
from this court, so as none durst entertaine me ; and 
when I could not comprehend the grounds of deal- 
ing with me in such a way, when I knew that many 
others, whoe had been my compaignons, and given 
(as I thought) more just causes of hatred against 
them than I had done, were receaued into fauour, or 
suffer'd to liue quietly. A man of quality, whoe 
well knew the temper of the court, explained the 
mistery unto me, by letting me know, that I was 
distinguished from the rest, because it was knowne 
that I could not be corrupted. 

Noe man could have thought it strange, if this has 
cast me into the utmost extreamityes ; and perhaps 
occasions of being reuenged would not have been 



248 THE APOLOGY OF 

wanting, if I had sought them ; but, instead of that, 
I cast myself into unsuspected retirement in the most 
remote parts of France, where I passed aboue eleuen 
yeares, and was drawne out of it only by a desire of 
seing my aged father before he died, and obtained 
the king's passeport for my security. 

My father dyed within a few weeks after my cum- 
ming ouer ; and, when I prepared myself to returne 
into Guascony, there to passe the remaining part of 
my life, I was hindered by the earl of Leicester, my 
brother, who questioned all that my father had giuen 
me for my subsistance ; and by a long and tedious 
suitte in shancery, detained me in England, untill I 
was made a prisoner. 

When a fauourable decree, obtained in shancery, 
gave me hopes of being freed from such uexatious 
businesse, I reassumed my former designe of return- 
ing into France ; and to that end bought a small par- 
cell of ground, in a friend's name, with an intention 
of going immediately unto it. This proceeded from 
the uneasinesse of my life, when I found, that not 
only the reall discontents, that grew to be too com- 
mon, were ascribed unto me, but sham plots fastened 
upon me, soe as I could never think my life a day in 
safety. 

Not long after the discovery of the Popish plot, 
his majestye was informed of a great plot of the non- 
conformists, and that I was at the head of it ; and 
though (being admitted unto his majestye's presence) 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 249 

I did truly shew unto him, that there neither was 
nor could be any thing of that nature, as things then 
stood ; because it would cast his majestye into con- 
junction with the Popish, which they did most ab- 
horre ; the sham was continued, as appears by the 
mealetub businesse. Though my name was not 
there found, I am well informed, that, if it had suc- 
ceeded, I should haue been inuolued in it. 

Other wayes were invented to uex and ruine me. 
When I only looked ouer a balcony to see what 
passed at the election of the sheriffs of London, I 
was indicted for a riot. 

In April last, I was told by a person of eminent 
quality, uirtue, and understanding, that I should in- 
faillibly be made a prisoner. I asked upon what 
pretence. He alleagued somme things that were en- 
tirely friuolous, relating unto vile persons, whoes 
faces and names I did not know, but concluded 
somme or other would be found ; and that if I was 
once taken it mattered not for what cause; it being 
impossible to auoide condemnation, before such 
judges and juryes as I should be tryed by. 

About the middell of June, the towne was full of 
rumours of a plot sayd to be discouered by Keeling, 
and not long after by West. Some persons fled, and 
a proclamation issued to haue them apprehended. 
My name was in every coffee-house, and seueral in- 
formations were given me, that I should certainely 

VOL. I, 2 H 



250 , THE APOLOGY OF 

be seased. I mentioned this to seuerall persons; 
but knowing no raison why I should absent myself, 
resolued not to do it ; and continued in that minde, 
though I was told, earely in the morning on the 26th 
of June, that the duke of Monmouth was retired, and 
colonel Rumsey had rendered himself. 

This concerned me soe littell, that I spent that 
morning upon my usuall study es, or entertaining such 
friends as came to see me ; and, whilest I was at 
dinner, a messenger came and arrested me in the 
king's name, by an order from four lords of the privy 
councell. Immediately after, Sir Philip Lloyd came 
with another order from the same lords, to sease my 
papers. He searched many secret places, but did 
not find one that he thought fit to take, except such 
as lay openly upon my table, or in a trunck that had 
not been shut in somme yeares. When he had ran- 
saked all, and put what he pleased into a trunk and 
pillowbear, he would haue persuaded me to put my 
seale unto them ; but I, remembring what had passed 
at collonell Mansell's lodging, and somme other oc- 
casions of the like nature, refused to doe it; wheare- 
upon he put his own seale, but promised, that they 
should not be opened, unlesse it were in my pres- 
ence ; which was observed as other promises of that 
nature haue bin ; for I neuer saw the said trunk or 
pillowbeare to this day. From my owne house I 
was carried to the messengers, and from thence to 
Whitehall, before the four lords, by whoes order I 
had bin apprehended. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 251 

The lord keeper [North] asked me some questions 
concerning Sir John Cockram, and Aaron Smyth, 
unto which I returned answeares with all the respect 
I could, without preiudice unto the truth ; and, 
when I thought I had giuen full satisfaction, was 
taken into the custody of a serieant at armes, and, by 
a warrant from * Sir Leolin Jenkins, [secretaiy of 
state] committed to the Tower for high treason, and 
there detained a close prisoner. Within a few days 
after, my house, mony, horses, goods, and chattels, 
were seased both in the towne and country, which I 
take to be contrary to the lawes of the land, in thees 
three points : first, it is expressely sayd in magna 
charta, confirmed by above thirty Parliaments, and 
many other statutes now in force, that noe man shall 
be imprisoned, unlesse it be by the judgment of his 
peeres, upon the testimony of tow credible witnesses, 

* Hithe. Sir Leolin Jenkins, son of a taylour, judge of the 
admiralty, was in hopes to be archbishop of Canterbury ; em- 
ployed in four embassies, and whose indefatigable industry in 

promoting a peace for France, has been our ; (curse or 

ruin.) He affirmed in the House of Commons, That upon ne- 
cessity, the King might raise monies without act of Parliament, 
A seasonable argument to persuade all the grand juries 
in England, to petition for a new Parliament. Or a list 
of the principal labourers in the great design of Popery 
and arbitrary power ; who have betrayed their country 
to the conspirators, and bargained with them to main- 
tain a standing army in England, under the command 
of the bigotted Popish duke, who by the assistance of 
the L. L's. (lord lieutenant's) Scotch army, the forces 
in Ireland, and those in France, hope to bring all back 
to Rome. Amsterdam, printed in the year 1677, in 
quarto. (By Andrew Marvell.) 



252 THE AFOLOGY OF 

or his own free confession, without force or violence ; 
wheareas here was no indictment or witnesse pro- 
duced untill the 7 of Nov. and, though extreame 
violence was used to me, I confessed noe crime at 
all. 2dly, The law of England appoints imprison- 
ment u in custodia??i, not in pcenam," acknowledges 
no close imprisonment ; wheareas I was kept with 
the most extreame rigour, to the great preiudice of 
my health, and almost destruction of my life, with- 
out any consolation from my friends, untill a few 
dayes before my tryall. 3dly, The law of England 
admits of no seissure of goods till after conviction ; 
wheareas diuers lewd fellowes were put into my 
house, whoe, besides many insolencies committed, 
did (as I am informed) feloniously take away my 
coaches, several parcells of goods, and somme mony, 
long before any indictement was exhibited against 
me, and though I made seueral addresses unto the 
king and councell, for the remouall of thoes vio- 
lences, could obtainc noe reliefe. 

November 6, I receaued notice from the lieutenant 
of the Tower, that an habeas corpus was brought 
unto him, and a command to bring me the next day 
before the king's-bench ; and I was accordingly 
brought into the palace-yard of Westminster, be- 
tween ten and eleven the clock in the morning, be- 
fore the grand jury was assembled, or the king's 
councell could know the bill would be found, unlesse 
they had the faculty of diuining, or held such an in- 
telligence with the grand jury, as utterly ouerthrowes 
all justice. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 253 

The bill being found, I was immediately hurried 
to the bar, through a strong guard of soldiers, to be 
arraigned* The bill was read in English and in 
Latin. I found it to be very long, perplexed, con- 
fused, and containing a heap of crimes, distinct in 
nature, distinguished from each other by lawes re- 
lating unto seueral statutes, which required seuerall 
considerations ; noe ouert act was precisely set forth, 
with its due circumstances ; noe man named, with 
whome I was sayd to haue conspired ; the meetings 
to conspire were sayd to be on the 30th of June, and 
many other dayes both before and since ; whereas I 
was then, and had bin somme dayes before, and ever 
since, a close prisoner : hereupon I desired the ad- 
uice of councell, to frame exceptions against the bill, 
professing that to me it seemed to be voide, as many 
had been declared to be soe, and particularly that of 
the duke of Somerset. I instanced, that the court 
had allowed unto Sir H. Vane the liberty of making 
his exceptions, and pleading over, which the lawes 
allowe in matters of life ; but all was refused, with- 
out any other reason then the will of the judges. I 
then desired councell to frame a speciall plea, open- 
ing, as well as I could, the scope of it ; but could 
obtaine nothing : and lastly, when I offered a speciall 
plea, ready engrossed, the court would not receaue 
it, unlesse it might be peremptory, declaring, that if 
it were ouer- ruled, I should be noe further heard ; 
which condition I was not willing to accept of, inas- 
much as, though I belieued my plea to be good, I 
was more confident of the merits of my cause ; and, 
least I should be depriued of the benefit of pleading, 
was forced to comme to the general issue. 



254 THE APOLOGY OF 

This proceeded meerely from my own ignorance 
in the lawe, and want of councell, which if I had 
had, the court could not have imposed so notorious 
a fraud upon me, as to make me belieue, that I could 
not be admitted to plead not guilty, if that speciall 
plea came to be ouer-ruled ; euery one that is any 
waves versed in the lawe knowing, that I might doe 
it without danger. If it had bin receaued, the court 
■would haue bin obliged to cut off those intricacyes, 
ambiguityes, by which I was entangled, and the jury 
brought to bring in a veredict which they did un- 
derstand : or impudently, in the face of the world, 
to haue showne, that they had noe consideration of 
lawe or common sense : and whatsoeuer they did, 
might then haue comme to the generall issue. Be- 
ing driuen upon these extremityes, by the uiolence 
and fraude of the chief justice, whoe threatened, that 
judgement of treason should be immediately entered 
if I did not comme to the generall issue, I was forced 
to plead not guilty, and theareby lost the aduantage, 
which was neuer to be recouered, unlesse the judges 
could haue bin changed : they, whoe knew I could 
neuer be condemned upon such evidence, as by con- 
sulting with the king's councell they knew would 
be produced, unlesse the matter could be rendered 
unintelligible to a common jury, resolved against 
any thing that should explaine it, or make the truth 
to appeare, and would neuer suifer me to get out of 
the snare in which they had caught me. 

The court, for fashion's sake, allowed me a fort- 
night to prepare for my tryal ; but, lest the fraud or 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 255 

errours of the indictment should be discouered, as that 
time might be of any benefite unto me, the coppy 
of it, and the help of councell, were again denyed, 
unlesse I could tell upon what points in lawe I would 
desire their aduice. 

This was noe lesse then to inioine imposibilityes. 
Having neuer studdyed the lawe, I was utterly igno- 
rant of it ; the indictment was soe long, perplexed, and 
intricate, that the ablest lawyers could giue me but a 
very imperfect account of it upon hearing, though 
the wholle contexture of it seemed to be such as was 
not to be upheld by lawe ; it was hard for them justly 
to fixe upon the wayes of overthrowing it, when the 
exceptions, and the speciall plea that I offered, had 
bin rejected, unlesse they had it before them, and 
nicely examined it : much lesse could it be done by 
me, whoe am utterly unexperienced in thoes mat- 
ters. * Mr. Atturney [Sir Robert Sawyer, knt.] 
had then so much confidence, and soe littell charity, 
as openly to auow, that I should not haue councell, 
lest they should furnish or teach me the points of 
lawe that I might insist upon. This appeared 
strange unto all thoes whoe haue any knowledge of 
the lawes of God or man, and that are not equally de- 
priued of charity and humanity. The obtaining of 
justice is the end of the lawe, and truth the rule of 

* Chipfiing Wicham, Sir Robert Sawyer, a lawyer of as ill 
reputation as his father. Has had for his attendance this ses- 
sion, 10001. and is promised, as he insinuates, to be attorney- 
general and speaker of the House of Commons. A seasonable 
argument, 8cc, 



256 THE APOLOGY OF 

it ; hereupon it is agreed by mankinde, that every 
man ought to know his accusation, that he may know 
to direct his deffence, or receaue aduice, if he be not 
ignorant in it. It is an absurd peruersion of all la we, 
to say, that I heard it read ; when it was rendered 
soe long and intricate, that neither I, nor any other 
man was, upon reading, able to comprehend it. 
One of the worst acts that were imputed unto Cali- 
gula, the worst and basest of men, was, that he 
caused edicts to be written in a hand, and set up in 
a place where no man could read them : hereby he 
turned the law into a snare, and destroyed thoes whoe 
did not conforme themselues unto the rule they neuer 
knew. They fall under the same condemnation, 
whoe make accusations obscure, and suffer them not 
to be examined, least they should be understood. 
To euade this, my prosecutors falsely pretend, that 
noe such priuilege is allowed to prisoners in England. 
But, besides fhat naturall and universal rule of jus- 
tice, which can be ouer-ruled by noe municipall law, 
I did produce the statute of 46 Ed. 3. which doth 
plainely enact, that all men, in all cases, wheather 
they be such as fall out against the king, or any 
others, shall haue coppy of such records as are against 
them ; and shewed, that the Parliament, whoes ex- 
ample all other courts ought to followe, had allowed 
unto the earl of Strafford, the earl of Danby, the lord 
Stafford, and the Popish lords now in the Tower, 
coppy es of their indictment : and, if it had bin pre- 
tended, that such a priuiledge was allowed only unto 
peeres, I was ready to say, that though I am not a 
peere, I am of the wood of which they are made, and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 257 

doe not find, that our ancestors were lesse carefull of 
the Hues of commoners, then of peeres, or that one 
la we is made for them, and another for us ; but are 
all entirely under the same law T e, and the same rules. 

I confess that, at the time of my arraignment, I 
was not fully prouided with arguments and proofes 
of these matters ; but when I came to my try all, had 
thoes that were abundantly sufficient : neuerthelesse 
the chief justice (whoe, by his oath, and the king's, 
ought to haue informed me of that lawe, if I did not 
know it) would not suffer the statute to be read, 
when I produced an authentike coppy of it, nor al- 
io we me the coppy of my indictement, which, ac- 
cording unto the true meaning and expresse words 
thereof, I demanded. 

Though I was thus irregularly hurried unto tryall, 
I thought that my birth, education, and life, might 
haue deserued a jury of the principal knights and 
gentlemen that were freeholders in Middlesex; or, 
if that rule were broken, the most eminent men for 
quality and understanding, reputation and uirtue, 
whoe liued in the county, though they had not free- 
holds, might haue bin taken to fill up the pannell. 
The importance and difficulty of the matter in ques- 
tion seemed farther to enforce it ; but when a coppy 
of the pannell was sent unto me, I found that all rules 
of decency, discretion, and humanity, had bin neg- 
lected, as well as thoes of lawe : the bailifes had not 
bin suffered to summon such of the freeholders, in 

VOL. I. 2 1 



258 THE APOLOGY OF 

their seuerall hundreds, as seemed most fit for such 
a seruice ; but receaued orders to summon by name 
such as Graham and Burton had, with the under- 
sheriff, agreed upon : the coppy of the pannell was 
sent unto me before one of them was summoned ; 
and, if I am rightly informed, somme of the best be- 
ing put in only for fashion- sake, did neuer receaue 
any summons ; but sure I am they did not appeare. 

The life I haue led might haue giuen me somme 
kinde of knowledge of such as reasonably might be 
thought fit to be my judges ; but I did not know the 
face of one, nor the names of more than three of the 
wholle pannell, and they last, as did not appeare. 
Upon examination I found, that they had not only 
put in uery many that were not freeholders, but 
picked up a rabble of men of the meanest callings, 
ruined fortunes, lost reputation, and hardly endowed 
with such understanding as is required for a jury in 
a nisi priiis court, for a businesse of fiue pounds. 

This might haue bin a littell mended by sifting, 
if the reasons alleaged against such as were the king's 
seruants in pay, wanted freehold, or for somme act 
specifyed, were notoriously infamous, had bin ac- 
cepted ; but the lord chief justice being pleased, 
without pretence of lawe, reason, or precedent, or 
suffering the point of lawe, concerning freehold to 
be argued, to reiect my exceptions, I was forced to 
challenge them peremptorily, whom I knew to heaue 
bin chosen to destroy me ; and was thereby depriued 
of the benefite allowed by the lawe, and forced ta 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 259 

admit of others most like unto them (whereas it is 
sayed, that I reiected men of quality, and took such 
as were mean, I doe professe, that I doe not know 
of a man, family, name, or fortune, upon the pan- 
nell, but Mr. Burt, Sir Charles Gerard, and Mr. 
Hawtry, whome I resolued to haue accepted ; and 
if I did challange any other like unto them, it was 
meerely by mistake); and, to embroile the minds 
of a jury thus constituted, the king's councell pro- 
duced Mr. West, colonel Rumsey, Keeling, and Sir 
Andrew Foster, to tell storyes upon hearsay. The 
three first spake of a plot betweene themselues and 
others, in which I was no more concerned, then that 
they, whoe had not reputation to carry on such a 
work, were willing to make people belieue, that I, 
and somme that had more, were engaged in it. 
This, in truth, did uery much tend to my justifica- 
tion ; for it is not to be imagined, that, if I had bin 
engaged in their designes, I should not rather haue 
communicated with West and Rumsey, then such 
meane persons, as were hardly in a distance of being 
knowne by me : and Foster's deposition went noe 
further, then that, as the lord Howard sayd somme 
Scotch gentlemen were desired to comme up upon a 
pretence of treating concerning Carolina, somme did 
comme to treat of the same ; but of me, or any cor- 
respondence between me and them, he says not a 
word. The lord Howard's deposition was uery 
rhetorical], but nothing at all to the present purpose. 
The indictment set forth a conspiracy on the 30th 
June, wherein I, and diuers others to the jury un- 
knowne, did then, and many other days both before 



260 THE APOLOGY OT 

and after, in the parish of St. Giles, not hauing the 
fear of God before our eyes, at the instigation of the 
diuell, had traiterously conspired the king to depose 
and kill ; the gouernment to subuert; to leauy war, 
and a cruel slaughter of his subjects to make ; and, 
in order heareunto, had written a false and seditious 
libell or book to stirre up the people. 

The witnesses produced by me were three emi- 
nent peeres, tow gentelmen of great quality, cousin 
germains of the lord Howard, a doctor of diuinity, 
a Frensh gentelman, tow of my seruants, and a verry 
considerable citizen. Six of these did depose, that 
the lord Howard, with hands and eyes lifted up to 
heauen, and calling God to witnesse, had most sol- 
iemly declared he knew of noe plot; belieued there 
was none ; took that which is mentioned, to be a 
sham inuented by the priests and Jesuits, and the 
more dangerous for being a sham, because noe man 
knew where it would end. Four of them sayd ex- 
pressely, he had, with the same asseuerations, de- 
clared his confidence that 1 knew of none ; for that 
I was so much his friend, that, if I had knowne of 
any, I would haue communicated it unto him. 

Before I was brought to my tryail, I had set downe 
a certaine methode to be kept in making my deffence, 
and twelue points of law to be argued by councell, 
or saued to be found specially, if the jury did find 
any fact against me. But all was inuerted by the 
uiolence of the chief justice, whoe perpetually inter- 
rupted me ; and was obserued soe well to choose his 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 261 

time of breaking of my discourse, as neuer to Suffer 
me to finish any point that pinshed too hard upon the 
undue practices of my prosecutors, or most con- 
duced to my deffence. Whensoeuer I cited a lawe, 
or a judged case, that made for me, or proposed a 
point of lawe to be argued or reserued, he would tell 
me it was nothing to the purpose, they had already 
determined it, and obliged me to be silent. Then I 
thereupon sayd, it was to noe purpose to speak, if 
law, reason, and truth were not regarded. He told 
me, that if I would not speak, they knew how to 
proceed. 

When, by the impudence of his extrauagance, I 
w r as driuen into theis streights, I saw noe better way 
then to she we, that the only witnesse against me was 
the lord Howard ; and he could deserue noe credite ; 
that hauing, at the lord Russell's triall, acknow- 
ledged, that the religious obligation of an oath did 
not consist in the outward administring of it, but the 
calling of God to be a witnesse unto it ; that he had 
there, as in the presence of God, asserted things in- 
consistent with what he had then sworne (soe as Mr. 
Howard sayd it was impossible that what he sayd 
untc him, and what he had then sworne in the court, 
could be true, unlesse his lordship had one soul on 
Sunday, and another on Monday) ; that he had 
thereby sworne himself periured, which was beyond 
any legall conuiction, and ought to destroy his testi- 
mony, as well as if he had been legally conuicted. 

That he had now added new periuries unto the 



262 THE APOLOGY OF 

former, in swearing things different from, and incon- 
sistent with, what he had sworne against the lord 
Russell ; and then concluded that he knew no more. 

That, being under the guilt of many confessed 
crimes, the terrours of death, the despaire of obtain- 
ing a pardon, unlesse it were by the drudgery of 
swearing, as was testified by Mr. Blake, or doing 
other jobs, as had bin sayd by Hunt and Burroughs, 
whoe durst not appear, though subpoenas had been 
sent them; he did in effect confesse his former 
crimes were to be redeemed only by committing 
more ; he ought not to be credited ; that he was my 
debtor; and, having defrauded me in the matter, 
and for the money, with which I had trusted him, 
comming to my house under the name of a friend, 
he had endeavoured to get my plate and other things 
of ualue into his hands. 

That the matter of his deposition was as absurd 
and impossible as false; that the six, which were 
sayd to be a select councell, were selected by noe 
man ; that they, not being chosen by any, could not 
erect themselves into a cabal, to manage such busi- 
nesse as were by noe man committed unto their 
charge ; that they did not knowe, and could haue 
noe confidence in one another; that I had neuer 
spoken unto the duke of Monmouth until he brought 
the said duke to dine with me, by a cheat put upon 
us both a few days before the pretended meetings; 
that, upon such occasions, when men did invite 
themseiues to conspire, they did ever choose such 



ALGERNON SYDNEY, 265 

as they trusted, and could help forwards the de~ 
signes for which they did conspire; that the lord 
Howard was trusted by none of them, and was soe 
far from being able to doe any thing towards such 
an end, that he durst not say he could bring fiue 
men into the field, furnish fiue pounds by his purse 
or credite, or knew how to command them if they 
were brought together by any other ; that, if he said 
the same thing of me, I might confesse it; and did 
confesse, I did not know fiue men in England that 
would followe me ; and could haue said uery much 
more, if I had not bin hindered by the chief justice, 
his frequent interruptions. 

That, his deposition being destroyed, nothing re- 
mained; or though contrary to lawe and reason it 
were receaued, it could be of no ualue, being single. 

That no use could be made of the papers sayd to 
be found in my house. That, though the gouerne- 
ment of France is sayd to be uiolent, noe use could 
be made of many papers of most dangerous conse- 
quence, sayd to be taken in M. de Fouquet's house, 
by the king of France, his officers ; and the error of 
not inuentorying them, in the presence of somme 
persons trusted by him, was neuer to be repaired, 
and he had been saved by it. That noe man said I 
writ them, and similitude of writing, in criminal 
cases, could be no euidence, as appeared by the 
judgment of the chief justice Keeling, and the whole 
court, in the lady Car's case. 



264 THE APOLOCY OP 

That, whosoever writ them, the}" appeared to be 
only somme scraps of a long treatise, in answere to 
Flimer's book, which, being full of abominable max- 
ims, might be opposed by any man : the like having 
bin written by one. White, a priest, in favour of 
Cromwell, when he was in possession of the power; 
he, though a tyrant, abominated it, and a gentleman 
who presented it ; that if I had written and published 
a book, I must be answerable for the contents of it, 
the wholle being considered; but when a few sheets, 
relating unto somme hundreds mentioned in them, 
were produced, not only the scope of the wholle re- 
mained unknowne, but the antecedants and conse- 
quents of the words they had read, being kept secrets, 
noe man could say whether this work were good or 
euil, true or false ; that when I desired thoes papers 
brought into the court should all be read, it was ab- 
surdly proposed that I should name the passage, I not 
knowing any word that was in them : that the ink 
and paper dkl euidently shew they were very old, 
and it was impossible they should have any depend- 
ence upon businesse pretended to be now in agita- 
tion ; such as had been written many, perhaps twenty 
or thirty years agoe, could not relate unto the pre- 
tended consultations within ten months. 

That noe tribunall did euer take notice of a man's 
priuate, crude, and undigested thoughts : that, 
though the inquisition is the worst and most bloody 
tribunall that hath bin knowne in the world, I never 
feared to write what I pleased against the religion 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 265 

there professed, when I liued under it ; and, though 
it raged in Spain more then any other place, noe 
monk could be questioned for any such writings, 
though they contained the most dangerous heresyes, 
if not published ; and it was enough for him that 
had written them, to say, that he was perhaps mis- 
taken. This being soe, there is neither matter nor 
euidence; the lord Howard's testimony is nothing 
in itself, and cannot be supplyed by that which is also 
nothing, or, if it were to be receaued by itself, could 
have noe relation to the consults of which he ac- 
cuseth me. I must euer insist upon the lawe of 
God giuen by the hand of Moses, confirmed by 
Christ and his apostles, wheareby tow witnesses are 
necessarily required, to euery word, and euery mat- 
ter. This is receaued by all that professe the name 
of Christ, and soe understood by all, that noe man 
in any place can be put to death, unless tow or more 
testify the same word or thing. The reason of this 
is not because tow or more euill men may not be 
found, as appeares by the story of Susanna; but be- 
cause it is hard for tow or more soe to agree upon all 
circumstances relating unto a lye, as not to thwart 
one another : and whosoeuer admits of tow testifying 
seueral things done or sayd at seueral times or places, 
conducing, as is said of late, unto the same ends, 
destroyes the reason of that lawe, takes away all the 
deffence that the most innocent men can haue for 
their Hues, and opens a wide gate for perjury, by 
taking away all possibility of discouering it. This 
would be far more mischieuous in England, where 
there is noe law of retaliation, then other countryes, 
VOL. i. 3k 



266 THE APOLOGY OF 

where a false witnesse undergoes the same punish- 
ment as should haue bin inflicted upon the accused 
person, if his words had bin found true ; but the 
lawe of England doth require tow witnesses unto the 
same thing, in the statute E. 6. whereby com- 
passing, by expresse words, to depose the king, is 
made penal by forfeiture of goods, &x. and the statute 
3 EL 2. and 13 Car. 22* enacting, that conspiring 
to leuy war should be treason, necessarily required 
tow witnesses for the proofe of it. The admission 
of tow testifying things passing at seuerall times and 
places, is but a new inuention. The lords were 
brought to swallow it at the lord Stafford's tryal, by 
the perfect concurrence of the testimonyes of Tur- 
uile and Bugdale, in the same thing, vid. murther- 
ing the king, though the one was in France, the 
other in Staffordshire ; but if that, which was then 
perhaps too farre strained, be carried so much farther, 
as to extend to any thing that these gentlemen shall 
fancy may conduce unto the same end, there is no 
saffetye in the lawe, and no man shall be found in- 
nocent, unless he please, as was sayd by one of the 
worst magistrates that euer was in Rome in the 
worst time, " sciluros meminem se inuito reperiri 
posse insontem" Sig. de imp. occ. That though 
there were such a number of witnesses as the lawes 
of God and man require, and they of credite, noe 
crime is fixed upon me that is or hath euer bin de- 
clared to be treason by the lawe. It is said in the 
indictment, that I conspired the death of the king; 
but noe man sayd that any mention was euer made 
of it in my presence : euen the king knowes I am 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 267 

not a man to have any such designe ; and I am no 
more capable of it then of eating him, if he were 
death [dead]. / think I may say, I did once save 
his life, but I am sure I never endeauoured to take 
it away. If the meetings mentioned were to be 
taken for conspiracyes against his majestye's life, 
something must haue been there proposed and re- 
solued concerning the wayes, manner, time, place, 
or persons, by whome it should be effected ; of which 
not one word is pretended, or that he was soe much 
as named. 

That conspiracyes take their denomination from 
the thing that the conspirators endeauoured to com- 
passe ; and no men were euer sayd to conspire to do 
that which was neuer spoken of amongst them. 

That the compassing of the king's death, declared 
to be treason in the first bransh of the statute of 25 
E. 3, was meant his corporall death, inasmuch as, in 
his politike capacity, he can neuer dye; and cannot 
be imply ed by the bransh relating unto the leuying 
of war, which is an act distinct in nature and distin- 
guished by lawe from it : the authority es of Cook 
and Hale, were alleaged to proue this distinction, 
that to leuy war was not to compass the death of the 
king; and, being treason of different species, the 
ouert act of the one could not be the ouert act of the 
other: that conspiring to leuy war, was not treason 
of itself, nor by implication, as appeared by seuerall 
temporary acts of the 1 of Mar. 13 El. 13 Car. 2. and 
others, whereby, after a certaine time during their 



268 THE APOLOGY OF 

lines, to conspire to leuy Avar is made treason, which 
had bin impertinent, if it had been euer soe by the 
antient statute of 25 E. 3. 

The case of Sir H. Vane was alleaged, who, 
though he had bin an eminent man in all the coun- 
cells relating unto the first war, by which the late 
king was brought to death, it was neuer imputed 
unto him, because euery man knew he had noe hand 
in it; and, though he did not deny but he had the 
like part in the war continued against his majesty 
now raigning, he could not be conuicted without 
proofe of his appearing with a regiment in South- 
wark : but, as to the present case, here is neither 
king brought to death, nor war leuyed, nor any 
thing done in relation to either. Here is nothing 
but a meeting acted.... a conspiracy, wherein it is not 
soe much as pretended that the matter which they 
are sayd to have conspired, was euer mentioned; 
and this war my accusers dreame of, was to be 
made without men, mony, armes, ammunition, offi- 
cers, soldiers, places, or any thing done towards the 
prouiding any of them. Much might haue bin here- 
upon sayd concerning the incongruity, uanity, 
falsity, and absurdity, of the lord Howard storyes : 
at the lord Russell's tryall he made the foundation 
of the councill of six to haue bin in prosecution of 
the earl of Shaftesbury e's designes ; and their appre- 
hensions that a businesse knowne to soe many, could 
not continue secret; and pretended their end to haue 
bin, to adjust, with much finesse, a businesse con- 
sisting of many pieces, whereas it doth [not] ap 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 269 

peare, that any of the six (except himself) knew any- 
thing of what that earl had designed; but certaine it 
is, that none of them had in a long time had any 
communication with him. The duke of Monmouth 
and himself thought him to be mad. I could say 
much of the earl of Essex, his thoughts of the same 
kind; and, besides the knowne dislikes which he 
had unto me, and I unto him and his wayes, I did 
not see his face in allmost a yeare before he went 
out of England, and had no communication with 
him afterwards. Noe man but the lord Howard 
had to this day explained the vast designes that were 
then knowne to soe many, that they could not be 
concealed ; and he had not told the name of one of 
the ten thousand brisk boys, that were to doe such 
wonders. If he say true, nothing was done to 
adiust with such finesse the businesse of many 
pieces, beyond the most common discourses ; and 
noe word fixed upon any man except the duke of 
Monmouth, who was of opinion, that a rabble could 
not resist a well metodized army. A scoller, that 
knoweth not the difference between metode and dis- 
cipline, might giue such a terme unto the right sol- 
diers of an army ; but he that attributes it unto a 
soldier, shewes that the wholle is an inuention of 
his owne. 

The mannagement of this affaire by the councill, 
or cabal, was equall unto the reasons of forming it ; 
not one of thoes pieces were taken into a considera- 
tion : noe care taken of prouiding men, armes, am- 
munition, or places ■ noe mention made of any cor- 



270 THE APOLOGY OF 

respondancc in the citty or country, and mony, 
which was the principall point, was spoken of only 
jocosely, or by the waye of mirth. 

This is a new way of carrying on the greatest bu- 
sinesse in the world, and, if it were true, could only 
shew, that the six were as mad as somme of them 
thought the earl of Shaftesbury e ; but, if the reputa- 
tion that somme of them haue or had in the world, 
be compared unto that of the lord Howard, it will be 
thought more probable that he is a lier, then that they 
were fooles. 

The rest of the romance is suitable unto this. He 
saith, that a correspondance was resolued with the 
earl of Argile ; but doth not say how, by whomme, 
when, or why. The matter relating unto the other 
Scotchmen is not lesse crude : such as best under- 
stood matters of Scotland should be sent for; a cant- 
ing letter written, and sent by Aaron Smith : but he 
neither tells certainly whoe writ the letter, to whome 
it was directed ; what were the expresse words or 
contents of it, nor wheather it was euer deliuered or 
not ; and he was soe carelesse of this important af- 
faire, as not to remember the names of men; and he 
that ought to be satisfied they were fit for such a 

work, was forced to learne the name of Sir 

Campbell, by description, which is impossible : noe 
man can know the likenesse of a picture, unlesse he 
know the man for whome it was drawne ; nor by de- 
scription, him that he doth otherwise knowe. The 
last part of that story agrees well enough with rest. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 271 

Hauing embarqued himself and his friends in this 
vast businesse, and aduanced it soe far as you haue 
heard, he thought that all was well, and it did not 
deserue his farther care : he lay idle at the least ten 
weeks in London, or at Knightsbridge, contenting 
himself only in asking me wheather Aaron Smith 
was gone; and then thought himself more concern- 
ed in uisiting a mannor of about two hundred pounds 
a yeare in Essex, then aduancing the businesse of 
war and state that he had undertaken : after hauing 
for a while loitered there, with the same indifference 
and serenity of minde, he made another iourney to 
the Bath : this is the parenthesis he mentions, that 
lasted almost six months : somme may impute it to 
the sedate constancy of a philosopher, others to the stu- 
pidity of a beast; but whoesoeuer considers the nature 
of the thing, and the temper of the person, can never 
belieue, that a wise or virtuous man could so shame- 
fully neglect the most important interest of his friends 
or country; and such as know how much his lord- 
ship, through a most tender loue unto himself, is 
concerned in the most triuiall affaires that relate unto 
his person or interest, will as littell think he could be 
soe well at leisure, as not look after thoes that came so 
neare unto his life and fortune, if any such had bin then 
in agitation. " Oportet mendacem esse memorem." 
If the prouerbe be true, that liars ought to haue good 
memoryes, his lordship, at my tryall, ought to haue 
thought of what he had sayd at the lord Russell's ; 
and, if the story had bin too long to be exactly re- 
lated, he might haue had recourse unto that which is 
in print. Sir H. Vane the elder, and others, being 



%72 THE APOLOGY OP 

examined at the earl of Strafford's triall, desired to 
see their first examinations taken in writing, least 
they might faile in any word; and the prosecutors, 
as well as judges, seeking nothing but truth and jus- 
tice, allowed it. If the same ends had bin now 
sought, he might haue read out of the book what he 
had sayd at his first tryall, and suffered to say no 
more : but the drudgery of swearing was not ouer ; 
somme other jobs must be done, before he could 
haue his pardon ; that which he had sayd was not 
enough; and, notwithstanding his oath, that he 
knew no more, he must sweare more wheather he 
knew it or not. A fruitful fancy, spurred on by 
feare, and restrained neither by conscience nor 
shame, furnished matter abundantly ; and all was re- 
ceaued, though directly contrary to his former depo- 
sition upon the same thing : he frames a formall 
speech for Mr. Hamden, as an ouerture of the ses-r 
sions ; reduced the jocular discourese of mony to a 
more serious consideration of raising thirty or twenty 
five thousand pounds ; supposes the lord Russell to 
have bin the writer of the letter sent by Aaron 
Smith ; makes anotter speech for Mr. Hamden, 
which he calls inuidious, as tending to an intention 
of referring all to the will of the Parliament ; but 
neither fineth upon any thing done, or to be done, 
nor relates a word sayd by me, unlesse it were in 
priuate unto himself, concerning Aaron Smith. 

Such stuffe would not, as I suppose, haue been 
receaued in any court of justice in Europe, nor in 
Westminster-hall, till it was furnished with theis 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 273 

judges ; but they, resoluing to receaue all that was 
against me, though evidently false, would neither 
suffer me to say the tenth part of what I had to al- 
leage in my defence, nor to explaine or proue that 
which I proposed. When the chief justice did cut 
me off, I did as justly as I could, desire him to pro- 
ceed softly and fairely ; that a wise heathen had sayd, 
noe delay ought to be esteemed long, when the life of a 
man was in question ; and that the scripture put an 
euil character upon thoes whoes feet were swift to 
shed blood ; but all was in uain ; the point of la we 
concerning the different sorts of treasons, could not 
be heard; noe councell allowed to argue them; noe 
point of lawe saued, when I shewed, that here was 
in my case neither conspiracy against the life of the 
king, nor war leuyed ; and that, that if by long series 
of far-fetched incohearent suppositions, any man fan- 
cied me to be guilty of treason, it must be by con- 
structions which none but the Parliament could 
make ; to proue this, I cited the statute 25 Ed. 3. 
and desired it might be read, with the prouiso that 
noe other court should take cognisance thereof; but 
I was ouerborne by the unreasonable uiolence of the 
chief justice, and denyed the reading of the statute, 
the assistance of councell to argue the points of lawe, 
or that any of thoes proposed by me should be saued 
unto me. 

The first was, that, by the lawe, noe man could 
be tryed upon an indictement layd in a county, un- 
lesse it were composed of freeholders. 2dly, The 

VOL. I. 2 L 



274 THE APOLOGY OF 

court hailing declared that I was tryed upon the statute 
21 Ed. 3. it ought to be declared upon what branch of 
that statute. 3dly, That though a conspiracy to 
leuy war were sworne by one witnesse, and that a 
credible one, I ought not to be thereupon indicted 
by the statute 1 Ed. 6. 12. the 5 of Ed. 6. 11. and 
the 13 Car. 2. 4thly, That conspiracy to leuy war- 
is not treason, by the statute 21 Ed. 3. 5thly, That 
by the same, conspiring to leuy war is not an ouert 
act of compassing the king's death; and, though 
ouert acts were pretended, they are not to be in- 
quired into, without the testimony of tow credible 
witnesses, by the 1 Ed. 6. 12. and I ought not to 
be obliged to confesse such a conspiracy if it be not 
proued. 6thly, Without admitting the fact, I ought 
to haue councell to argue the points of law arising 
upon the euidence ; inasmuch as I may haue cause 
to demurre unto the euidence, and want their aduice 
thereupon. 7thly, That supposing the lord Howard 
to be a credible witnesse, he is but one : noe man can 
be thereupon found guilty, as appears by White- 
bread's case; the papers cannot be taken for another 
witnesse, similitude of hands is noe euidence, whoe- 
soeuer writ them; they can haue noe concurrence 
with what is sayd, being unknowne unto him, writ- 
ten many years since, as appears by the ink and pa- 
per, and noe way relating unto the matter in ques* 
tion, nor applyed unto any particular time or case 
whatsoeuer. 8thly, That though the meetings men- 
tioned by the lord Howard were supposed to be to 
consult to leuy war, such assembly es could not be 
taken for ouert acts of conspiring the death of the 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 275 

king, noe word or ouert act tending thereunto in 
giuing in euidence ; nothing arising from supposi- 
tions, arguments, presumptions, or constructions, 
can make a man a traitor : the end of the statute 25 
Ed. 3. was to take awaye ambiguityes, and uariety 
of opinions, and the decisions of all such cases as are 
theareby referred to the Parliament. 

If theis points were not allowed, councell might 
haue been admitted to argue them, or saued to be 
found specially as was desired ; but all in uaine. 

I well knew the disorder that had bin brought 
upon the nation in the time of Ri. the c 2. when as it 
is sayd in the statute 1 H. 4. noe man knew what to 
speak, or what to doe, for feare of treason ; that the 
like was declared, statute 1 Ma. and by the — Ed. 
6. expresse words, and open preaching, to com- 
passe the deposing of the king, setting up another 
title, etc. though proued expressely by tow credible 
witnesses, were not made treason ; and could haue 
easily inferred " a fortiori," that a polemike dis- 
course, left imperfect, neuer examined, neuer shewed 
to any man, writ long since, relating in generall unto 
such cases as thoes of Tarquin, Caligula, Nero, Vi- 
tellius, Peter the Cruell of Castile, the degenerated 
races of Meroneus, or Charles the Great, or the like, 
could haue noe relation unto any statute of treason 
In England; but the chief justice would not suffer 
me to speak. 

This explained a mistery which noe man could 



276 THE APOLOGY OF 

before understand; they, whoe saw I was not brought 
to a trial with the lord Russell, belieued, that, * if 
the iayles did not furnish somme other euidence 
against me, I should be released without a trial ; 
but when theis, and many other points of lawe ware 
over-ruled without hearing, it plainely appeared, that 
my triall was deffered f until an undersherife cou'd 

* Mr. Aaron Smith deposed, that he was prisoner in the Tower 
when lord Russell and Colonel Sydney were tryed; and was 
kept close prisoner above nineteen weeks, at five pounds a week 
charge, and two warders watched him, or lay in the room. 
That one of his warders told him that Mr. Ambrose Philips 
was come to speak with him, and had an order from one of the 
secretaries to come as often as he would, and bring whom he 
would with him ; but then he was alone. When Mr. Philips 
came in, after some other discourse, he told him, it was in his 
power to make himself what he would ; for, said he.. ..You 
know this rogue Sydney is a traytor, and you may make your- 
self what you will, if you will discover what you know of his 
designs against the government.. ..That he replied, He could 
not say any thing- that could touch a hair of Colonel Sydney's 
head ; and that then Mr. Philips said, If he might advise the 
king, he would have all the damn'd whig rogues hanged, 
&cc. &c. Sec. 

A display of Tyranny, part 2, p. 281. 

t The sheriffs were, Peter Daniel, Esq. and Samuel Dash- 
wood Esq. who, together with Sir Henry Tulse, knt. mayor, 
were appointed by a commission under the great seal. The 
under-sheriffs were, Thomas Rowse, gent, and Charles Har- 
grave, gent. 

There was all this summer (1681) strange practising with 
witnesses to find more matter against him (the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury) : Wilkinson, a prisoner for debt, that had been often 
with him, was dealt with to accuse him. The court had found 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 277 

be made, that would pack a jur}^ with Burton and 
Graham, and the bench could be filled with such 
judges, as had noe understand of the lawe, nor re- 
out two solicitors to manage such matters, Burton and Gra- 
ham ; who were, indeed, litter men to have served in a court 
of inquisition, than in a legal government. 

Burnet's Hist, of his own times. 

Mr. Graham, the solicitor of all the late sham plots upon 
Protestants, and pay-master of corrupt juries and perjured 
witnesses, solicited this prosecution against the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury, and hence took his first step to such preferment as 
enabled him to give eight or ten thousand pounds with a 
daughter. 

A display of Tyranny. Or remarks upon the illegal and 
arbitrary proceedings in the courts of Westmister and 
Guildhall ; from the year 1 678, to the abdication of the 
late King James : in which time the rule was, " Quod 
firincifii placuit lex esto." London, printed anno An- 
gliae salutis firimo, 1689, part i, p. 66, in duod. 

Then the jury immediately gave in their verdict, that the 
defendant (Sir Samuel Barnardiston, bart.) was guilty of the 
offence and misdemeanor charged in the indictment ; as no 
doubt they resolved to do, before they heard one word of the 
matter. The judgment upon this verdict was, " That the de- 
fendant should pay ten thousand pounds fine, and be impris- 
oned till paid, and to find sureties for his good behaviour for 
life." Accordingly, he was committed for the fine, to the 
king's-bench, and continued a prisoner four or five years, which 
satisfied not ; but Graham and Burton, those instruments of 
rapin and oppression, broke in upon his estate, and, besides the 
waste and destruction made, levyed to their own use and the 
king's, about six thousand pounds. 

The same, page 214. 



278 THE APOLOGY OF 

gard unto reason, justice, truth, or common sence ; 
for words, though sworn by two credible witnesses, 
could not be brought within the 25 Ed. 3. only by 

Upon this occasion of health drinking, I cannot hinder my- 
self from remembering the case of Mr. Elias Best, a substantial 
citizen, but one who had been an ignoramus juryman, a great 
reproach and an unpardonable crime in that day ; as, sir, you 
very feelingly know. He was indicted for the frolic of drinking 
to the pious memory of honest Stephen Colledge, and con- 
demned to a fine of a thousand pounds, to stand three times in 
the pillory, and to give sureties for his good behaviour for life. 
On this judgment, he was imprisoned three years ; to the loss 
of a good trade, and to the ruin of his health and estate ; and 
when almost ready to expire, he was graciously pardoned, upon 
payment of 2001. to the Empson and Dudley of the late reign, 
Graham and Burton. 

The same, part it, in the epistle dedicatory, to Sir 
Samuel Barnardiston, bart. 

Mr. Normansel and Mr. Trotman, the secondaries, deposed 
....That Graham and Burton were the prosecutors of lord Rus- 
sell ; that Sir Dudley North had the books from them, and re- 
turned lord Russell's jury ; that juries had usually been re- 
turned by the secondaries, and taken out of two, three, or four 
wards ; but this jury was taken out of above nineteen wards. 
Mr. Trotman added, that Graham and Burton were also the 
prosecutors of Alderman Cornish. Sir Dudley North went on, 
saying, That he impannelled the juries for the session, when 
the lord Russell was tryed ; that he returned the best jury he 
could, without observing any ward ; and drew this out of several 
wards ; because they might be the more substantial men. 
That the juries before, were returned by the secondaries, but 
this being a very extraordinary business, he thought it requisite 
to take care of it himself. 

The same, part n, p. 285, 6, 7. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 279 

any but such as theis, according to the authority of 
Cook and Hales, and Pine's case ; nor taken for an 
ouert act of compassing the king's death. But they 

After this, he (John Hambden, Esq.) was brought to a trial 
for misdemeanor, and was convicted on the lord Howard's evi- 
dence. He pleaded magna charta, tnat a salvo contencmento ; 
but the court fined him forty thousand pounds, and to imprison- 
ment till the fine was paid, and security for his good behaviour. 
The king made his choice of putting him in prison, and he was 
committed to the marshal's house in the king's-bench, where 
he was ten months. He offered several sums of money, and 
they answered, " They had rather have him rot in prison than 
pay the fine." After this, they put him in the common prison, 
where he was kept ten or eleven months very close. Then 
they contrived a writ, called a long writ, to reach his real and 
personal estate, whilst he was thus a prisoner. After this, he 
heard a new witness appeared, which was after the defeat of the 
duke of Monmouth. He was (then) sent close prisoner to the 
Tower, by the lord Sunderland's warrant, and put into such a 
room where he had no conveniency, and with two of the rudest 
warders in the Tower, to lie in the room with him. After seven 
or eight weeks, he was removed to Newgate, where he was kept 
close eleven weeks. His friends offered money for his pardon 
to some in power, who were the lord Jefferyes and Mr. Petre ; 
the sum was six thousand pounds, and that was effectual. It is 
not possible for a man to suffer more than he did. By the help 
of the money, on condition he would plead guilty to his indict- 
ment, he was to come off. His friends advised him to it, be- 
cause it could hurt none ; there being none living of those called 
the council of six, but the lord Howard. Whereupon, pleading 
guilty, he was discharged ; paying three or four hundred pounds 
to Burton and Graham, for the charge of his pardon. 

The same, part n, p. 301. 

Monday, June 20, 1689. 
Mr. Chrisly reported from the committee, to whom the bill 
for annulling the attainder of Sir Thomas Armstrong was re- 



280 THE APOLOGY OF 

could bring the most confused, improbable and con* 
tradictory relations of one man of noe credite, a proofe 
of a conspiracy ; and as an ouert act hath [hatch] 

committed, some amendments to the bill; as also who were his 
prosecutors ; and also what losses Sir Thomas Armstrong's 
family had sustained by reason of the attainder ; and thereupon 
it was resolved, " That Sir Richard Holloway (late recorder of 
Oxford-, whose part in the dispatching of Stephen Colledge 
advanced him to this station, as this author elsewhere observes) ; 
Sir Francis Wythens, the executors of the late lord Jefferyes 
and of the late justice Walcot, Mr. Graham, and Mr. Burton do 
attend the house (of Commons) on Saturday morning next, to 
answer to such matters as are charged against them touching 
the proceeding against Sir Thomas Armstrong." Then Mrs. 
Mathews, Sir Thomas Armstrong's daughter, was called in, and 
examined what she knew of the prosecution against her father; 
and Sir Robert Sawyer, then attorney general, being named by 
her as one of the prosecutors, after she was withdrawn, he 
was heard in his place to what was objected against him, and 
then he withdrew, and upon debate of the matter, it was re- 
solved, " That Sir Robert Sawyer's name be put into the bill as 
one of the prosecutors of Sir Thomas Armstrong." Resolved, 
" That Sir Robert Sawyer be expelled the house for the same." 

Saturday, Jan. 25, 1689. 
The house being acquainted, that according to their order, 
Sir Francis Wythens, Sir Richard Holloway, Mr. Graham, 
and Mr. Burton attended at the door, they were severally 
called in and examined, touching the prosecution and proceed- 
ings against Sir Thomas Armstrong. And also the executors 
of the late lord Jefferyes, that were attending at the door, were 
likewise called in, and asked what they had to say, why repara- 
tion should not be made out of the lord Jefferyes' estate to the 
said Sir Thomas Armstrong's family. No persons appearing 
as executors to the late justice Walcot ; the house was ac- 
quainted, that he died intestate, and had not left an estate suffi- 
cient to pay his debts. After the persons before-mentioned 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 281 

up his credite with papers as ill proued, and con- 
taining matters unknowne unto him, and hauing noe 
coherence with what he sayd. Such as they only 

were heard and withdrawn, Mr. Blaney was called in, who gave 
the house an account of the proceedings in the court of king's 
bench, upon the awarding execution against Sir Thomas Arm- 
strong. And then the house proceeded upon the amendments 
made by the pommittee to the bill, for annulling the attainder 
of Sir Thomas Armstrong : and after having inserted the name 
of Sir Robert Sawyer, as a prosecutor, and resolved, " That the 
sum of five thousand pounds should be paid by the judges and 
prosecutors to Sir Thomas Armstrong's lady and children, as a 
recompense of the losses they had sustained by reason of his 
attainder:" the bill was recommitted, &c. &c. 

The same, part i, p. 225. 

The Commons ( 1 680) did also assert the right of the people 
to petition for a Parliament. And because some in their coun- 
ter-petitions had expressed their abhorrence of this practice, 
they voted these abhorrers to be betrayers of the liberties of 
the nation. They expelled one Wythens out of their house 
for signing one of these, though he with great humility con- 
fessed his fault, and begged pardon for it. The merit of this 
soon raised him to be a judge; for indeed he had no other 
merit. They fell also on Sir George Jefferyes, a furious de- 
claimer at the bar : but he was raised by that, as well as by 
his prosecution. 

Burnet's History of his own times, vol. i, p. 484. 

The addresses had now (1683) gone round England. The 
grand juries made, after that, high presentments against all that 
were esteemed whigs and nonconformists. Great pains were 
taken to find out more witnesses. Pardons and rewards were 
offered very freely. But none came in ; which made it evident, 
that nothing was so well laid, or brought so near execution as 
the witnesses had deposed : otherwise people would have been 
VOL. I. 2 M 



282 THE APOLOGY OF 

could suffer a witnesse to guesse a man into treason, 
or make the most extrauagent guessings or supposi- 
tion to passe for euidence. 

crowding in for pardons. All people were apprehensive of 
very black designs, when they saw Jefferyes made lord chief 
justice, who was scandalously vicious, and was drunk every 
day ; besides a drunkenness of fury in his temper, that looked 
like enthusiasm. He did not consider the decencies of his 
post : nor did he so much as affect to seem impartial as became 
a judge, but run out upon all occasions into declamations, that 
did not become the bar, much less the bench. He was not 
learned in his profession ; and his eloquence, though viciously 
copious, yet was neither correct nor agreeable. Pemberton 
v was turned out of the common pleas, and Jones was put in his 
place : and Jefferyes had three judges joined with him in the 
king's bench, fit to sit by him. 

The same, part I, p. 568. 

When Jefferyes came to the king at Windsor, soon after this 
trial (of Sir Thomas Armstrong, 1684) the king (C. II.) took 
a ring of good value from his finger, and gave it him for these 
services. The ring upon that was called his blood stone. The 
king gave him one advice, which was somewhat extraordinary 
from a king to a judge ; but it was not the less necessary to 
him : the king said, it was a hot summer, and he was going 
the circuit, he therefore desired he would not drink too much. 

The same, p. 580. 

Kirk, who had commanded long in Tangier, was become so 
savage by the neighbourhood of the Moors there, that after the 
battle (of Sedgemore, fought July 6, 1685) he ordered several 
of the prisoners to be hanged up at Taunton, without so much 
as the form of law, he and his company looking on from an en- 
tertainment they were at. At every new health, another prisoner 
was hanged up. And they were so brutal, that observing the 
shaking of the legs of those whom they hanged, it was said 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 283 

Such as they only could fancy, that a few scraps 
of old paper, refuting the doctrines of one of the 
most wicked and foolish books that ever was written 

among them, they were dancing; and upon that the music was 
called for. This was so illegal, and so inhuman, that it might 
have been expected that some notice would have been taken of 
it. But Kirk was only chid for it : and it was said, that he had 
a particular order for some military executions, so that he could 
only be chid for the manner of it. 

But, as if this had been nothing, Jefferyes was sent the 
western circuit to try the prisonsers. His behaviour was be- 
yond any thing that was ever heard of in a civilized nation. He 
was perpetually either drunk, or in a rage, liker a fury than 
the zeal of a judge. He required the prisoners to plead guilty, 
and in that case he gave them some hope of favour, if they 
gave him no trouble ; otherwise he told them he would execute 
the letter of the law upon them in its utmost severity. This 
made many plead guilty, who had a great defence in law. But 
he shewed no mercy. He ordered a great many to be hanged 
up immediately, without allowing them a minute's time to say 
their prayers. He hanged, in several places about six hundred 
persons. The greatest part of these were of the meanest sort, 
and of no distinction. The impieties with which he treated 
them, and his behaviour towards some of the nobility and gen- 
try that were well affected, but came and pleaded in favour of 
some prisoners, would have amazed one, if done by a Bashaw 
in Turkey. England had never known any thing like it. The 
instances are too many to be reckoned up. 

But that which brought all his excesses to be imputed to the 
king himself, and to the orders given by him was, that the king 
had a particular account of all his proceedings writ to him every 
day ; and he took pleasure to relate them in the drawing-room to 
foreign ministers, and at his table, calling it Jefferey's campaign: 
speaking of all he had done in a style that neither became the 
majesty nor the mercifulness of a great prince, etc. etc. etc. 

The same, p. 64S. 



284 THE APOLOGY OF 

in the world, tended to the subuersion of our govern- 
ment; and that his approbation of the slaughter of 
Caligula, or the insurrections against Nero, were 

As soon as it was known at London, that the king (James 2) 
was gone, the 'prentices and the rabble, who had been a little 
quieted when they saw a treaty on foot between the king and 
the prince (of Orange) now broke out again upon all suspected 
houses, where they believed there were either priests or Papists. 
They made great havock of many places, not sparing the houses 
of ambassadours. But none were killed, no houses burnt, nor 
were any robberies committed. Never was so much fury seen 
under so much management. Jefferyes, finding the king was 
gone, saw what reason he had to look to himself; and, appre- 
hending that he was now exposed to the rage of the people, 
whom he had provoked with so particular a brutality, he had 
disguised himself to make his escape. But he fell into the 
hands of some who knew him. He was insulted by them with 
as much scorn and rudeness as they could invent ; and, after 
many hours tossing him about, he was carried to the lord mayor 
(Sir John Chapman, knt.) whom they charged to commit him 
to the Tower, which the lord Lucas had then seized, and in it 
had declared for the prince. The lord mayor was so struck 
with the terror of this rude populace, and with the disgrace of a 
man who had made all people tremble before him, that he fell 
into fits upon it, of which he died soon after. 

The same, p. 79T. 

During these irruptions of the mob, chancellor Jefferyes, dis- 
guised in a seaman's habit, in order to escape in a vessel freight- 
ed for Hamburgh, was discovered by a clerk in chancery, that 
accidentally passed by, as he was looking out of the window of 
the house where he had concealed himself. He was immedi- 
ately seized by the mob, and, after many indignities put upon 
him, carried before the lord mayor, who declined meddling with 
him. But the chancellor seeing himself in the hands of an en- 
raged mob, which threatened to tear him in pieces, desired that 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 285 

ouert acts of conspiring the death of the king now 
raigning in England. The thing was fit to be 
brought only before such as sought to deserue the 
preferrements unto which they were unworthily ad- 
uanced, by doing such jobs as would haue bin ab- 
horred by any that had understood the principles or 
ends of gouernments, examined the history of the 
world, or seen that if it were in no case lawful for 
people to rise against a prince, there is not a prince 
in the world that can haue a law full title to the 
cro wne he bears ; the most part of our kings, since 
William the Norman, were usurpers ; or, which is 
worse, usurpation conferres a just title. 

Theis only, hauing admitted an indictment ground- 
ed wholly upon suppositions, innuendoes, and in- 
tentionels, could hearken unto the lord Howard ; 
whoe coniectures what I and others meant, whoe 
writ the letter into Scotland, to whome it was di- 
rected, what were the contents and effects of it, 
though he would not speak precisely to any of thoes 
points. 

he might be sent to the Tower, which at last was granted him, 
not as a favour, but in hopes of seeing him shortly conducted 
from thence to the gallows. It is pretended, he offered to dis- 
cover many secrets, and for that reason, was kept some time in 
prison, till the affairs of government should be settled. But he 
died in that interval, by the blows he had received, according to 
some ; drinking spiritous liquors, according to others ; and, as 
some pretend, of the stone. Never man had better deserved 
public punishment, as an atonement for all the mischiefs done to 
his country, and for all the blood spilt by his means. 

Rapin's Hist, of England. 



286 THE APOLOGY OF 

Theis only could think him a credible witnesse, 
when they had heard him sweare himself periured, 
and the contents of his deposition were, by his owne 
assertions, as in the presence of God, proued to be 
false by nine irreproachable witnesses. 

Theis only could suffer a jury to suppose, that an 
evidence can be grounded upon an opinion of a simil- 
itude in writing, when they know it is none ; that a 
book was written with an intention to stirre up the 
people, when they hardly sawe the nftyeth part of it, 
and would not suffer the tenth of that to be read ; 
that papers, written perhaps twenty or thirty yeares 
agoe, were intended in prosecution of designes layd 
within ten months. 

Theis only could receaue an indictement, in which 
the king's title di defender of the faith w T as ommitted; 
refuse a copy, when it was demanded, and the stat- 
ute 46. Ed. 3. produced, whereby it is enacted, that 
it should, in all cases, be allowed unto euery man, 
least the irreparable errors of it should be discouered. 
Theis only could give credite unto a grand jury, 
whoe, upon their oaths, presented a bill, wherein I 
am sayd to have trayterously, on the 30th of June, 
and many other days, both before and after, con- 
spired with many other false traitors, to them un- 
knowne ; whereas I was then, and have bin euer 
since, a close prisoner in the Tower; and it is mor- 
ally impossible for any man to know I did conspire, 
unless they did knowe with whome. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 287 

They only could pach [patch] up an euidence, 
consisting of two parts, as the lord Howard's depo- 
sition, and the papers upon the similitude of a hand, 
when they knew both of them to be voide in lawe ; 
and tack them together, when it was apparent, they 
neither had nor could haue any relation unto each 
other. 

It was a work for them only, impudently and with- 
out hearing, to ouer-rule many most important 
points of lawe ; by their word to depriue the w nolle 
English nation of their right of being tryed by free- 
holders, which is as generall and antient as any part 
of our lawes ; to make discourses at a priuate meet- 
ing, imperfectly, uariously, and to their owne 
knowledge falsely reported, by a man of a most prof- 
ligate life and reputation, to passe for a conspiracy ; 
to oblige a prisoner falsely to acknowledge he had 
conspired to leuy war, or, contrary to the judgement 
of many Parliaments, to make a conspiracy to leuy 
war, to passe for treason ; by the 25th of Ed. 3. to 
make such a conspiracy, which could not be treason 
in itself (though it had bin true) to be treason, as im- 
agining the death of the king, though the lawes, and 
the most reuerenced expositors of them, declare that 
it is not so. 

They only could take upon them by uarious im- 
probable, absurd and false constructions, to make 
acts noe wayes comprehended within the words or 
meaning of the statute 25 Ed. 3. to passe for treason, 
when they knew themselues, by the same, to be for- 



^OO THE APOLOGY OF 

bidden to make any construction at all ; and neither 
to suffer the statute to be read, councell heard, nor 
the points of law to be saued unto me. 

i 

None but such as they would haue suffered Mr. 
Solicitor, by a long painted speech, to haue misre- 
peated the evidence on both sides to mislead the 
jury ; to haue represented the lord Howard's frequent 
attestations of God, that he knew of noe plot, be- 
lieved there was none, and took that which was 
spoken of, to be an inuention of the priests, only as 
willingnesse to confesse it, and his many periuryes, 
as a mark of the truth of what he had sworne ; and 
by such constructions as were absurd, impossible 
and false, to drive them headlong into a uerdict upon 
noe euidence, in matter of which they were utterly 
incapable of judging, if the law had referred unto 
them, and whoe were soe compacted and composed, 
as not to be capable of judging any matter relating 
unto the meanest thiefe. 

If any others then theis had bin upon the bensh, I 
might haue bin heard, when I offer'd to answer unto 
theis fallacyes, and haue unrauelled all his frauds; 
though such a work could hardly be expected from 
a man of my education, and in an age that had much 
abated his uigour and memory. If this was denyed, 
the points of lawe might haue bin left to be found 
specially : but I was in all things ouerborne by the 
fury of the chief justice. He did probably feare he 
should not be taken for Cesar's friend, if he did let 
this man goe. He was to deserue his otherwise un- 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 289 

deserued preferrement. To this end, he made a 
speech of about a hower and a quarter, soe confused, 
that I can give no other account of it, then that as 
he had bin long obserued to excell in the lawdable 
faculty of misleading juryes, he did exercise it with 
more confidence upon the bensh, then euer he had 
done at the bar ; declared treasons that had bin hith- 
erto unknowne, and that the jury was obliged to take 
that by law, which he judged to be soe ; misrepre- 
sented the evidence more than the sollicitor had 
done ; and as a rule which they were to follow, as- 
serted, that if one man swore, that such a one sayd, 
he would with his knife kill the king, and another, 
that he had of him bought that knife, it was sufficient 
evidence to convict any man. 

It may as easily be guessed, * what uerdict I ex- 
pected from an ignorant, sordide and packed jury, 

* Mr. Richard Wynne declared, that he was solicitor to 
Colonel Sydney ; that the Colonel excepted against several of 
the jury ; to some, as not being freeholders ; to others, as being 
in the king's service, and receiving wages from his majesty. 
That presently after the tryal, the lord chief justice sent him 
prisoner to the king's bench, for saying, the jury were a logger- 
head jury ; and that they had not evidence sufficient to find such 
a verdict ; or found a verdict contrary to evidence. 

Mr. Wynne said this to Angier, the foreman of that murder- 
ing jury, and to Glisby, another of the three carpenters which 
were upon that jury, and to another of their brethren, near the 
king's-bench court ; whereupon they went to lay hold on Mr. 
Wynne ; at which instant Mr. Forth, the king's joyner, coming, 
interposed; upon which Angier said, Mr. Forth, will you assist 
this man? He says, Colonel Sydney's jury was a loggerhead 
jury : to which Mr. Forth answered, I have nothing to do with 
VOX*. I, 2 N 



290 THE APOLOGY OF 

upon such a direction, as what security any man in 
England can have for his life and estate, when such 
stuiFe can be made to passe for law : but I was still 
ouerborne, and could not be heard, when I endeav- 
oured to bring the chief justice to reflect upon his 
own extrauagancyes. 

Before the tryall, I was credibly informed, that his 
lordship had soe far humbled himself, as to aduise 
with the king's councell of the wayes of compassing 
my death ; and, that a paper containing the result of 
that consultation, had been seene upon Mr. Attor- 
ney's table. Since that time I haue bin told by per- 
sons of unblemished reputation, that, not satisfied 
with the directions given in publike, he had bin far- 
ther pleased, when he retired upon pretence of tak- 
ing a glasse of sack, to followe the jury and giue 
them more particular instructions. 

Vpon the first part, I was advised to coniure his 
lordship, in the presence of God, to declare, wheather 
he had not consulted as aforesayd; but the testimony 
his lordship gaue upon my tryall of the tendernesse 
of his conscience, and how far he uallued the religion 
of his owne, and the king's oath, persuaded me to be 
silent. 

the jury, but Glisby knows, that I know he is a loggerhead. 
Of this they complained to Jefferyes, who committed Mr. 
Wynne and Mr. Forth to the king's-bench. It cost Mr. Forth 
about fifty pounds, whereof Burton had twenty-four; and he 
being a Protestant joyner, 'scaped well out of their hands, as 
times then went; especially with that trade. 

A Display of Tyranny, etc. part n, p. 306. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 291 

When the jury brought in their uerdict, I desired 
to examine them seriatim, wheather every one of 
them had found me guilty, before it was recorded ; 
and prepared to ask them particularly, wheather they 
had found me guilty of compassing the king's death ? 
2dly, Of leuying war against the king ? 3dly, If they 
found me guilty of any treason, within the statute of 
25 Ed. 3. ? 4thly, If they found any treason proved 
against me by tow witnesses ? And this I did, that I 
might not be deprived of the benefite of giuing in my 
exceptions; as I haue heard the lord Russel had lost 
it by not hauing moued it before the uerdict was re- 
corded; but the chief justice would not heare me. 

The irregularity of theis proceedings (that I may 
not use a harder word) obliged me, on the 25th of 
Nouember, to present a petition unto his majestye, 
shewing : 

" That your petitioner, after a long and close im- 
prisonment, was on the 17th of this month, brought 
with a guard of soldiers into the pallace-yard, upon 
a habeas corpus, directed to the lieutenant of the 
Tower, before any indictement had bin found against 
him ; that whilest he was there detained, a bill was 
exhibited and found ; wheareupon he was immedi- 
ately carried to the king's-bensh, and there ar- 
raigned : in this surprise, he desired a coppy of the 
indictement, leave to make his exceptions, or to put 
in a speciall plea, ready engrossed, which was also 
reiected without reading ; and being thretned, that 
if he did not immediately plead guilty, or not guilty, 



292 



THE APOLOGT OF 



a judgment of high treason, should be entered, he 
was forced, contrary to law, as he supposed, to 
comme to a generall issue, in pleading non guilty. 

" Nouember 21, he was brought to his tryall, and 
the indictement being perplexed and confused, soe as 
neither he, nor any one of his friends that heard it, 
could fully comprehend the scope of it, he was ut- 
terly vnprouided of all the helps that the lawe allow- 
eth unto euery man for his deffence ; wheareupon he 
did again desire a coppy, and produced an authen- 
tike coppy of the statute 46 Ed. 3. wheareby it is 
enacted, that euery man shall haue a coppy of any 
record that toucheth him in any manner, as well that 
which is against the king as any other persone ; but 
could neither obtaine a coppy of his indictement, nor 
that that statute should be read. 

" The jury by which he was to be tryed, was not, 
as he informed, sumoned by the bailifs of the seuerall 
hundreds in the usuall and legall manner, but names 
were agreed upon by Graham, Burton, and the un- 
der-sherife, and direction given to the baillifte to sum- 
mon them ; and being alsoe chosen, the coppy of 
the pannell was of noe use unto him. 



" When they came to be called, he excepted against 
somme for being your majestye's seruants, which he 
did hope should not have bin returned, when he was 
prosecuted by your majestye, with many others for 
not being freeholders, which exceptions he thinks 
are good in lawe : others were lewd and infamous 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 293 

persons, not befit to be of any jury, but was ouer- 
ruled by lord chief justice ; and your petitioner 
forced to challenge them peremptorily, whome he 
found to be picked as most suitable unto their inten- 
tions, whoe sought his ruine, wheareby he lost the 
benefite allowed by the lawe, of making his exception, 
and was forced to admit of mekanike persons, utterly 
unable to judge of such matters as were to be brought 
before them. 

" The jury being sworne, noe witnesse was pro- 
duced, whoe fixed any thing beyond hearsay upon 
your petitioner, except the lord Howard; and somme 
that swore the papers sayd to be found in his house 
and offered as a second witnesse, were written in a 
hand by your petitioner. Your petitioner produced 
ten witnesses, the most of them men of eminent 
quality, the others of unblemished fame, to shew the 
lord Howard's testimony w r as inconsistent with what 
he had, as in the presence of God, affirmed unto 
many of them, as he swore in the tryall of the lord 
Russell, under the same religious obligation of an 
oath, as if it had bin legally administered. Your 
petitioner did endeauour farther to shew the incon- 
gruity of his testimony, he being guilty of many 
crimes, which he did not pretend had any knowledge 
of; arid hauing no other hope of pardon, then by the 
drudgery of swearing against him, deserued not to 
be belieued ; and that similitude of hands could not 
be euidence, as was declared by the lord chief justice 
Keeling, and the whole court, in the lady Carr's case; 
soe as noe euidence at all remained against him: 



294 THE APOLOGY OF 



that whosoeuer writ thoes papers, they were but a 
small part of a polemike discourse, in answer to a 
book written aboue thirty yeares agoe, upon a gen- 
erall proposition, applyed to noe time, or any par- 
ticular case ; that it was impossible to judge of any 
part of it, unlesse the wholle did appeare, which did 
not ; that the sence of such as were produced, could 
not be comprehended, unlesse the wholle were 
read, which was denyed ; that the ink and paper 
shewed them to have been written many years agoe ; 
and the lord Howard knowing nothing of them, they 
could have no concurrence with what your petitioner 
was sayd to haue designed with him and others. 

" That the confusion and errors in writing it, shew- 
ed that they had neuer so much as been reuiewed, and 
written in a hand that noe man could read ; were 
neither fit for the presse, nor could be in somme 
yeares, though the writer of them did intend it, which 
did not appeare ; that being only the present study 
and priuate thoughts of a man, for the exercise of 
his owne understanding in his study, neuer shewed 
unto any, nor applyed unto a particular case, could 
not fall under the statute 25 Ed. 3. which takes cog- 
nissance of no such matters, being reserued thereby 
to the Parliament, as declared in the prouiso which 
he did desire might be read, but was refused. 

" Eight or nine important points of lawe did here- 
upon emerge, upon which your petitioner, knowing 
his owne weaknesse, did desire his councell might 
be heard, or reserued to be found specially, but was 



. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 295 

ouer-ruled by the uiolence of the lord chief justice ; 
and your petitioner soe frequently interrupted, the 
wholle methode of his defFence was broken, and he 
not suffered to say the tenth part of what he could 
have alleaged in his defFence, and the jury carried 
into a uerdict that they did not know nor understand. 

" Forasmuch as noe man that is oppressed in Eng- 
land can haue any reliefe unlesse it be from your 
majestye, your petitioner humbly prays, the premises 
considered, your majestye will be pleased to admit 
him into your presence ; and if he doth not shew, 
that it is for your majestye's honour and interest to 
preserue him from the sayd oppression, he will not 
complaine, though he be left to be destroyed." 

But he was pleased to referre me to the same judges 
of whome I complained. 

Nouember 26, I was again brought to the bar, and 
asked by the chief justice, what reason I could al- 
leage why judgment should not be pronounced 
against me? My first answer was, that I had no triall, 
the jury not hauing been composed of freeholders, as 
the law required. The chief justice sayd, the ques- 
tion had been decided at the lord Russell's triall. I 
replyed, the question had then bin concerning a cor- 
poration, this was upon an indictement layd in a 
county. He sayd, that was nothing, the decision 
had been generall. I desired to know, wheather any 
precedent could be alleaged, of an Englishman tryed 
by others then by freeholders; and that if this rule 



296 *HE APOLOGY OF 

were broken, any man might be tryed by his own 
groomes, or a jury made up of porters, carmen, or 
scauingers, and thereupon desired councell to argue 
it, which was denyed, 

I then desired the indictement might be againe 
read, which was granted, but was not suffered to 
peruse it : this I did alsoe desire, upon an informa- 
tion that the bill had been mended since it came into 
the court ; and that by a statute of Henry the Sixth, 
euery indictement w r as made void, whearein any word 
or sillable had bin added or changed ; but not being 
suffered to see it, I could not tell what additions or 
alterations had bin made. 

I then pleaded, that by the statute 13 Car. 2. it 
was treason to depriue the king of any of his titles ; 
and that defensor fidei not being in the indictement, 
it was void, and desired councell to argue it ; but 
though the chief justice seemed to be surprised at the 
obiection, he ouer-ruled it, and would not heare 
councell. 

I then moued for a new triall, by reason of the 
many miscarriages that had bin in this, which he w r as 
pleased to call a triall, though I took it to be none. 
I then pleaded, that trials being instituted for the ex- 
ecution of justice through the discouery of truth, 
that ought to be taken for none, whearein abuses had 
bin committed to the ouerthrowe of justice ; and 
that if I might be patiently heard, I thought I could 
make it appeare to have bin soe in this case ; and 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 297 

went about to shew reasons for what I sayd. 
Amongst others I shewed, that on the 7th of Nouem- 
ber, I had bin brought to Westminster, by a habeas 
corjms granted the day before, when as yet noe bill 
was exhibited against me, and my prosecutors could 
not know it would be found, unlesse they had un- 
dewly corresponded with the grand jury. 2dly, 
That a copy of the indictement, the benefite of mak- 
ing my exceptions against it, or of putting in a spe- 
cial! plea, which the lawe doth alio we, and the help 
of councell to frame them, or either of them, had bin 
denyed unto me. 3diy, The speciall plea which I 
presented, ready engrossed, to preuent the mischiefs 
that would followe upon my general answer unto a 
long, confused, imperfect, unintelligible indictement, 
had bin reiected, and thereby forced to comme to a 
generall issue, in pleading not guilty. Heareupon 
justice Withins, being (as seemed to me) uery drunk, 
told me, it was false ; and the chief justice sayd, he 
had not reiected my plea, but told me the danger of 
putting it in, because the king's councell would de- 
murr unto it, and I could not be suffered to plead 
hereafter. Hereupon I replyed, that hauing liued 
aboue threescore yeares, I had neuer receaued or de- 
serued such language, for that I had neuer asserted 
any thing that was false ; but, as to this particular, 
all that were present could witnesse my sayd plea 
had bin reiected : and the condition afterwards im- 
posed, that I should not be admitted to put in any 
other plea that came to be ouer-ruled, was not ac- 
cording unto lawe ; but I being ignorant of it, and 
vol. i. so 



298 THE APOLOGY OF 

denyed the help of a councell, had bin forced to sub- 
mit, which I should not haue done, if I had bin then 
as well informed as I am now, that I finde myself 
circumuented by the fraud of thoes whoe by their 
oathes ought to haue preserued me. 4thly, That 
being brought unto a try all, Nou. 21, I had againe 
desired a copy of the indictement, alleaged prece- 
dents, produced an authentike coppy of the statute 
46 Ed. 3. enacting, that all men, in all cases, as 
well against the king as others, should haue coppy es 
of any records in which they were concerned ; but 
could neither obtain it, nor that the statute should be 
read. 6thly, I am probably informed, and if time 
be allowed, doubt not but I shall proue it, that the 
bailifes of the hundreds of Middellsex, had not the 
liberty of summoning the freeholders according unto 
law, but such only (whether freeholders or not) whoes 
names were agreed by Graham and Burton, with the 
under- sherife; of whome many were not summoned 
when the coppy of the pannel was sent unto me, and 
somme of them not all. 6thly, Many of the king's 
servants now in pay, from whome impartiall justice 
could not be expected, whilst I was prosecuted at 
the king's suite, were returned upon the pannell, and 
many who were not freeholders, and somme lewd 
and infamous persons, whoe deserue not to be of any 
jury ; all my lawful exceptions reiected ; the coun- 
cell prayed to argue the points of law arising upon 
the euidence, refused ; wheareby I had not only bin 
obliged to admit of thoes whome I knew to be chosen 
to destroy me, and forced to answer before a jury 
composed of mechanike persons, utterly incapable 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 299 

of judging such matters as came before them, but 
depriued of all lawful deffence. 

I had many other things to offer, concerning the 
uncertainety and inualidety of the lord Howard's tes- 
timony. The utter impossibility of bringing papers 
written many yeares agoe, into a concurrence with a 
new plot, of which the plotters knew nothing. I 
desired that the duke of Monmouth, whoe now ap- 
peared, might be asked, wheather he had euer heard 
of them, as he must haue done, if they had been de- 
signed to stirre up the people, in order to councells 
taken with him. The weaknesse of an euidence taken 
from a similitude of hands ; the unreasonablenesse of 
judging of a few sheets of a treatise, without seeing 
the wholle ; the impossibility of bringing the matters 
layd unto my charge, within the statute of 25 Ed. 3. 
though they had bin proued; the iniustice of break- 
ing the methode set for my defence ; the fraud of 
the solicitour's representations ; the irregularity and 
mistakes of his lordship's direction ; the direct inca- 
pacity layd upon that court to judge of constructiue 
treasons ; the manyfold errors in construing this to 
be treason, there being nothing to lead them unto it, 
but seauen or eight suppositions, of which euery one 
was false; and resolution taken not to, heare any 
point of lawe argued, lest they should be theareby 
led unto truth : but nothing could be heard. 

I had alsoe reason to moue for an arrest of judg- 
ment, that though I had granted what had bin sayd 
by lord Howard to be true, consulting to leuy war 






300 THE AFOLOCY 01 

can amount only unto words, and words only are not 
to be treason, according to Cook and Hales; and 
Pine's case, 4 Car. pr. 1. 

Consulting to leuy war is noe overt act of compas- 
ing the king's death, as is sayd expressly by Cook 
and Hales ; assembling to consult, can amount unto 
no more than to consult, and, legally considered, can 
be noe more than consulting, it being impossible in 
law or nature to consult without assembling, that is, 
comming together ; soe as assembling to consult is 
noe more than bare consulting, that is, bare words. 

That consulting, and sending into Scotland, if it 
had bin true, were no more than to consult with thoes 
that were to comme ; that all this being testified only 
by the lord Howard, had bin inualide, though their 
credite had been good ; as appears by Blake his law, 
and the Popish lords now in the Tower, who are 
thought to hold their Hues only upon the weaknesse 
of one witnesse, though there were many concurrent 
circumstances. Whitebread's tryall was put off for 
the same reasons ; and, beside that hath bin already 
sayd of the papers, I ought to have added the absur- 
dity of pretending, that such as had been written 
many yeares agoe, not perfected, nor to be perfected 
in a long time, perhaps neuer, and neuer shewne unto 
any man liuing, should be intended to stirre up the 
people ; wheareupon a new tryall, an arrest of judge- 
ment, should be giuen; but I could not be heard; 
and though I did attest God and man, that I had not 
bin sufficiently heard, the chief justice with his usuall 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 301 

precipitation pronounced judgment of death against 
me as a traitor. 

Somme that were present, affirm, that he acknow- 
ledged the late pretended plot did not affect me; but 
I confesse I did not obserue that, and think myself 
obliged unto him in nothing, but that he seemed to 
lay uery much weight upon the old cause, and my en- 
gagement in it, with which I am soe well satisfyed, 
as contentedly to dye for it. 

When I heard the judgement, to the best of my 
remembrance, I sayd theis words.... 

' Why then, oh Lord! sanctify , I beseech thee, theis 
my sufferings unto me; sanctify me through my suf- 
ferings ; sanctify me through thy truth; thy word is 
truth ; impute not my blood unto this nation ; impute 
it not unto the great city through which I shall be 
led to the place of death ; let not my soul cry, though 
it lie under the altar; make no inquisition for it ; or, 
if innocent blood must be expiated, let thy uangeance 
fall only upon the head of thoes, whoe knowingly and 
maliciously persecute me for righteousnesse sake.' 

The chief justice then speaking, as if I had been 
a distempered man, I held out my arme, and desired 
any that were present to feele my pulse, and wheather 
any man could be more free from emotion ; and I 
doe professe, that soe far as I doe knowe, and did 
then feel myself, I was neuer in a more quiet temper; 
glory and thanks be unto God for euer, who had filled 
me with comforts, and soe upholds me, that hauing, 



502 THE AfOLOGY OF 

as I hope, through Christ uanquished sin, he doth 
preserue me from the feares of death. 

The chief justice having performed this exploit, is 
sayd to haue bragged unto the king, that no man in 
his place had euer rendered unto any king of Eng- 
land such seruices as he had done, in making it to 
passe for lawe, that any man might be now tryed by 
a jury not consisting of freeholders ; and that one 
witnesse, with any concurrent circumstance (as that 
of the buying the knife) was sufficient to convict 
him. In this he seems to have spoken very mod- 
estly ; for he might truly haue sayd, that he oueruled 
eight or ten very important points of lawe, and de- 
cided them without hearing ; whereby the law itself 
was made a snare which no man could auoide, nor 
haue any security for his life or fortune, if one vile 
wretch could be found to sweare against him such 
circumstances as he required. Neuerthelesse wee 
all know, that the like had been done in former times. 
In the dayes of Richard 2, the nation was brought 
into such a condition, through the peruersion of the 
lawe, that noe man knew what to say or doe for feare 
of treason, as is expressed in the statute 1 Hen. 4. 
and were thereby driven upon the most violent reme- 
dy es. God only knowes what will be the issue of 
the like practice in theis our dayes. Perhaps he will 
in mercy speedily uisit his afflicted people. I dye in 
the faith that he will doe it, though I know not the 
time or wayes ; and am so much the more confident 
he will doe it, that his cause and his people is more 
concerned now than it was in former time. The 
lust of one man and his fauy rites was then only to be 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 303 

set up in the exercise of an arbitrary power over 
persons and states ; * but now the tyranny ouer con- 
sciences is principally affected, and the ciuill powers 

* There has now for diverse years, a design been carried on, 
to change the lawful government of England into an absolute 
tyranny, and to convert the established Protestant religion into 
downright Popery : than both which, nothing can be more de- 
structive or contrary to the interest and happiness, to the consti- 
tution and being of the king and kingdom. 

For if first we consider the state, the kings of England rule not 
upon the same terms with those of our neighbour nations, who, 
having by force or by address usurped that due share which 
their people had in the government, are now for some ages in 
possession of an arbitrary power (which yet no prescription can 
make legal) and exercise it over their persons and estates in a 
most tyrannical manner. But here the subjects retain their 
proportion in the legislature ; the very meanest commoner of 
England is represented in Parliament, and is a party to those 
laws by which the prince is sworn to govern himself and his 
people. No money is to be levied but by the common consent. 
No man is for life, limb, goods, or liberty, at the soveraign's 
discretion : but we have the same right (modestly understood) 
in our propriety, that the prince hath in his regality ; and in 
all cases where the king is concerned, we have our just remedy 
as against any private person of the neighbourhood, in the 
courts of Westminster-hall, or in the high court of Parliament. 
His very prerogative is no more than what the law has deter- 
mined. His broad seal, which is the legitimate stamp of his 
pleasure, yet is no longer current, than upon the trial it is found 
to be legal. He cannot commit any person by his particular 
warrant. He cannot himself be witness in any cause : the bal- 
ance of public justice being so delicate, not the hand only but 
even the breath of the prince would turn the scale. Nothing 
is left to the king's will, but all is subjected to his authority : 
by which means it follows that he can do no wrong, nor can he 
receive wrong : and a king of England keeping to these meas- 
ures, may without arrogance be said to remain the only intelli- 



304 « THE APOLOGY OF 

are stretched unto this exorbitant height for the esta- 
blishment of Popery. I belieue that the people of 
God in England haue, in theis late yeares, generally 

gent ruler over a rational people. In recompense, therefore, 
and acknowledgment of so good a government under his influ- 
ence, his person is most sacred and inviolable ; and whatsoever 
excesses are committed against so high a trust, nothing of them 
is imputed to him, as being free from the necessity or tempta- 
tion, but his ministers only are accountable for all, and must 
answer it at their perils. He hath a vast revenue constantly 
arising from the hearth of the householder, the sweat of the 
labourer, the rent of the farmer, the industry of the merchant, 
and consequently out of the estate of the gentleman ; a large 
competence to defray the ordinary expendfc of the crown, and 
maintain its lustre. And if any extraordinary occasion happen, 
or be but with any probable decency pretended, the whole land, 
at whatsoever season of the year, does yield him a plentiful har- 
vest. So forward are his people's affections to give, even to 
superfluity, that a forainer (or Englishman that hath been long 
abroad) would think they could neither will nor chuse, but that 
the asking of a supply were a mere formality, it is so readily 
granted. He is the fountain of all honours, and has moreover 
the distribution of so many profitable offices of the household, 
of the revenue, of state, of law, of religion, of the navy (and 
since his present majesty's time, of the army) that it seems as 
if the nation could scarce furnish honest men enow to supply 
all those employments. So that the kings of England are in 
nothing inferior to other princes, save in being more abridged 
from injuring their own subjects : but have as large a field as 
any of the external felicity, wherein to exercise their own vir- 
tue, and so reward and encourage it in others. In short, there 
is nothing that comes nearer in government to the divine per- 
fection, than where the monarch, as w^ith us, enjoys a capacity 
of doing all the good imaginable to mankind, under a disability 
to all that is evil. 

And as we are thus happy in the constitution of our state, so 
are we yet more blessed in that of our church ; being free 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 305 

growne faint. Somme, through feare, haue deflected 
from the integrity of their principles. Somme 
haue too deeply plunged themselues in worldly 

from that Romish yoak, which so great a part of christendome 
do yet draw and labour under. That Popery is such a thing 
as cannot, but for want of a word to express it, be called a reli- 
gion : nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is 
otherwise decent to be used, in speaking of the differences of 
humane opinion about divine matters. Were it either open 
Judaisme, or plain Turkery, or honest Paganisme, there is yet 
a certain bonajides in the most extravagant belief, and the sin- 
cerity of an erroneous profession may render it more pardon- 
able : but this is a compound of all the three, an extract of 
whatsoever is most ridiculous and impious in them, incorporated 
with more peculiar absurdities of its own, in which those were 
deficient ; and all this deliberately contrived, knowingly carried 
on by the bold imposture of priests, under the name of Chris- 
tianity. The wisdom of this fifth religion, this last and inso- 
lentest attempt upon the credulity of mankind seems to me, 
though not ignorant otherwise of the times, degrees and meth- 
ods of its progress, principally to have consisted in their own- 
ing the scriptures to be the word of God, and the rule of faith 
and manners, but in prohibiting at the same time their com- 
mon use, or the reading of them in public churches, but in a 
Latine translation, to the vulgar : there being no better or more 
rational way to frustrate the very design of the great institutor 
of Christianity, who first planted it by the extraordinary gift of 
tongues, then to forbid the use even of the ordinary languages. 
For having thus a book which is universally avowed to be of 
divine authority,but sequestering it only into such hands as were 
intrusted in the cheat, they had the opportunity to vitiate, sup- 
press, or interpret to their own profit those records by which 
the poor people hold their salvation. And this necessary point 
being once gained, there was thence forward nothing so mon- 
strous to reason, so abhorring from morality, or so contrary to 
scripture, which they might not in prudence adventure on, See* 
VOL. I. 2 p 



306 THE APOLOGY OF, ETC. 

cares, and, so as they might enjoy their trades and 
wealth, haue lesse regarded the treasure that is layed 
up in heaven. But I think there are very many who 
haue kept their garments unspotted ; and * hope that 
God will deliver them, and the nation for their sakes. 
God will not suffer this land, where the gospel hath 
of late florished more than in any part of the world, 
to become a slave of the world ; he will not suffer it 
to be made a land of grauen images : he will stirre 
up witnesses of the truth, and, in his owne time, 
spirit his people to stand up for his cause, and de- 
liuer them. I liued in this belief, and am now about 
to dye in it. I knowe my Redeemer Hues ; and, as 
he hath in a great mesure upheld me in the day of 
my calamity, hope that he will still uphold me by 
his Spirite in this last moment, and giuing me grace 
to glorify him in my death, receaue me into the 
glory prepared for thoes that feare him, when my 
body shall be dissolued. Amen. 

An account of the growth of Popery and arbitrary govern- 
ment in England, etc. (By Andrew Marvell, 'who 
died shortly after, not without strong suspicions of be- 
ing poysoned.') 

Of James 1. Charles 1. Charles 2. James 2. their evil deeds 
and sinnings against the people, see an admirable recapitulation, 
in that master tract intitled " A short history of standing ar- 
mies in England," by that sprited, excellent English gentleman, 
John Trenchard. 

* In his bounty he did deliver them, and soon too, at the 
iBOSt noble, most happy revolution. 



Bfetoutses on <§oteroment 



BY 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 



Discourses on <®obernmenk 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION. 



Having lately seen a book, intitled, " Pat- 
riarchal' written by Sir Robert Filmer, concerning 
the universal and undistinguished right of all kings, 
I thought a time of leisure might be well employed 
in examining his doctrine, and the questions arising 
from it : which seem so far to concern all mankind, 
that, besides the influence upon our future life, they 
may be said to comprehend all that in this world de- 
serves to be cared for. If he say true, there is but 
one government in the world that can have any thing 
of justice in it ; and those who have hitherto been 
esteemed the best and wisest of men, for having con- 
stituted commonwealths or kingdoms, and taken 
much pains so to proportion the powers of several 
magistracies, that they might all concur in procuring 



310 DISCOURSES ON 

the public good ; or so to divide the powers between 
the magistrates and people, that a well regulated har- 
mony might be preserved in the whole, were the 
most unjust and foolish of all men. They were not 
builders, but overthrowers of governments : their 
business was to set up aristocratical, demccratical, 
or mixed governments, in opposition to that mon- 
archy, which, by the immutable laws of God and 
nature, is imposed upon mankind; or presumptu- 
ously to put shackles upon the monarch, who, by 
the same laws, is to be absolute and uncontrouled : 
they were rebellious and disobedient sons, who rose 
up against their father ; and not only refused to 
hearken to his voice, but made him bend to their 
will. In their opinion, such only deserved to be 
called good men, who endeavoured to be good to 
mankind, or to that country to which they were 
more particularly related : and inasmuch as that 
good consists in a felicity of estate, and perfection of 
person, they highly valued such as had endeavoured 
to make men better, wiser and happier. This they 
understood to be the end for which men entered into 
societies; and though Cicero says, that common- 
wealths were instituted for the obtaining of justice, 
he contradicts them not, but comprehends all in that 
word ; because 'tis just, that whosoever receives a 
power, should employ it wholly for the accomplish- 
ment of the ends for which it was given. This 
work could be performed only by such as excelled 
in virtue : but lest they shonld deflect from it, no 
government was thought to be well constituted,* 

* Potentiora legum quam hominum imperia. Liv. 1. 2. c. 1. 



GOVERNMENT. 311 

unless the laws prevailed above the commands of 
men; and they were accounted as the worst of 
beasts, who did not prefer such a condition before a 
subjection to the fluctuating and irregular will of 
a man. 

If we believe Sir Robert, all this is mistaken. No- 
thing of this kind was ever left to the choice of men. 
They are not to inquire what conduces to their own 
good : God and nature have put us into a way from 
which we are not to swerve : we are not to live to him 
nor to ourselves, but to the master that he hath set 
over us. One government is established over all, 
and no limits can be set to the power of the person that 
manages it. This is the prerogative, or, as another 
author of the same stamp calls it, " The royal char- 
ter" granted to kings by God. They all have an equal 
right to it; women and children are patriarchs; and 
the next in blood, without any regard to age, sex, or 
other qualities of the mind or body, are fathers of as 
many nations as fall under their power. We are not 
to examine whether he or she be young or old, vir- 
tuous or vicious, sober minded or stark mad ; the 
right and power is the same in all. Whether virtue 
be exalted or suppressed ; whether he that bears the 
sword be a praise to those that do well and a terror to 
those that do evil, or a praise to those that do evil and 
a terror to such as do well, it concerns us not; for 
the king must not lose his right, nor have his power 
diminished, on any account. I have been sometimes 
apt to wonder, how things of this nature could enter 
into the head of any man ; or if no wickedness or folly 



312 DISCOURSES ON 

be so great, but some may fall into it, I could not 
well conceive why they should publish it to the 
world. But these thoughts ceased when I considered 
that a people, from all ages in love with liberty, and 
desirous to maintain their own privileges, could never 
be brought to resign them, unless they were made 
to believe, that in conscience they ought to do it ; 
which could not be, unless they were also persuaded 
that there was a law set to all mankind, which none 
might transgress, and which put the examination of 
all those matters out of their power. This is our 
author's work. By this it will appear whose throne 
he seeks to advance, and whose servant he is, whilst 
he pretends to serve the king. And that it may be 
evident he hath made use of means suitable to the 
ends proposed for the service of his great master, I 
hope to shew that he hath not used one argument 
that is not false, nor cited one author whom he hath 
not perverted and abused. Whilst my work is so 
to lay open these snares, that the most simple may 
not be taken in them, I shall not examine how Sir 
Robert came to think himself a man fit to under- 
take so great a work, as to destroy the principles, 
which from the beginning seem to have been com- 
mon to all mankind ; but only weighing the positions 
and arguments that he alledgeth, will, if there be 
either truth or strength in them, confess the discov- 
ery comes from him that gave us least reason to ex- 
pect it ; and that, in spite of the ancients, there is 
not in the world a piece of wood, out of which a 
Mercury may not be made. 



COVERNMENT. 313 



SECTION I. 

THE COMMON NOTIONS OF LIBERTY ARE NOT 
FROM SCHOOL DIVINES, BUT FROM NATURE. 

In the first lines of this book he seems to denounce 
war against mankind, endeavouring to overthrow 
the principle of liberty in which God created us, and 
which includes the chief advantages of the life we 
enjoy, as well as the greatest helps towards the fe- 
licity, that is the end of our hopes in the other. To 
this end he absurdly imputes to the school divines 
that which was taken up by them as a common no- 
tion, written in the heart of every man, denied by 
none, but such as were degenerated into beasts, from 
whence they might prove such points as of them- 
selves were less evident. Thus did Euclid lay 
down certain axioms which none could deny that did 
not renounce common sense, from whence he drew 
the proofs of such propositions as were less obvious 
to the understanding ; and they may with as much 
reason be accused of Paganism, who say that the 
whole is greater than a part, that two halves make the 
whole, or that a straight line is the shortest way from 
point to point, as to say, that they who in politics lay 
such foundations as have been taken up by school- 
men and others as undeniable truths, do therefore 
follow them, or have any regard to their authority. 
Though the schoolmen were corrupt, they were 

vol. i. 2 q. 



314 DISCOURSES ON 

neither stupid nor unlearned : they could not but 
see that which all men saw, nor lay more approved 
foundations, than, that man is naturally free ; that he 
cannot justly be deprived of that liberty without 
cause ; and that he doth not resign it, nor any part 
of it, unless it be in consideration of a greater good, 
which he proposes to himself. But if he doth un- 
justly impute the invention of this to school divines, 
he in some measure repairs his fault in saying, " this 
hath been fostered by all succeeding Papists for 
good divinity : the divines of the reformed churches 
have entertained it, and the common people every 
where tenderly embrace it." That is to say, all 
christian divines, whether reformed or unreformed, 
do approve it, and the people every where magnify 
it, as the height of human felicity. But Filmer, 
and such as are like him, being neither reformed or 
unreformed christians, nor of the people, can have 
no title to Christianity ; and, inasmuch as they set 
themselves against that which is the height of hu- 
man felicity, they declare themselves enemies to all 
that are concerned in it ; that is, to all mankind. 

But, says he, " they do not remember, that the 
desire of liberty was the first cause of the fall of man. " 
And I desire it may not be forgotten, that the liberty 
asserted is not a licentiousness of doing what is 
pleasing to every one against the command of God ; 
but an exemption from all human laws, to which they 
have not given their assent. If he would make us 
believe there was any thing of this in Adam's sin, he 
ought to have proved, that the law which he trans- 



GOVERNMENT. 315 

gressed was imposed upon him by man, and conse- 
quently that there was a man to impose it ; for it will 
easily appear that neither the reformed nor uniform- 
ed divines, nor the people following them, do place 
the felicity of man in an exemption from the laws of 
God, but in a most perfect conformity to them. Our 
Saviour taught us, " not to fear such as could kill 
the body, but him that could kill, and cast into hell : " 
and the apostle tells us, that " we should obey God 
rather than man." It hath been ever hereupon ob- 
served, that they who most precisely adhere to the 
laws of God, are least solicitous concerning the com- 
mands of men, unless they are well grounded ; and 
those who most delight in the glorious liberty of the 
sons of God, do not only subject themselves to him, 
but are most regular observers of the just ordinances 
of man, made by the consent of such as are concern- 
ed, according to the will of God. 

The error of not observing this may perhaps de- 
serve to be pardoned in a man that had read no 
books, as proceeding from ignorance, if such as are 
grossly ignorant can be excused when they take 
upon them to write of such matters as require the 
highest knowledge : but, in Sir Robert, it is prevari- 
cation and fraud to impute to schoolmen and puri- 
tans that which in his first page he acknowledged to 
be the doctrine of all reformed and unreformed 
christian churches, and that he knows to have been 
the principle in which the Grecians, Italians, Span- 
iards, Gauls, Germans, and Britons, and all other 
generous nations ever lived, before the name of 



316 DISCOURSES ox 

Christ was known in the world ; insomuch that the 
base, effeminate Asiatics and Africans, for being care- 
less of their liberty, or unable to govern themselves, 
were by Aristotle and other wise men called " slaves 
by nature," and looked upon as little different from 
beasts. 

This which hath its root in common sense, not be- 
ing to be overthrown by reason, he spares his pains 
of seeking any; but thinks it enough to render his 
doctrine plausible to his own party, by joining the 
Jesuits to Geneva, and coupling Buchanan to Dole- 
man, as both maintaining the same doctrine; though 
he might as well have joined the puritans with the 
Turks, because they all think that one and one 
makes two. But whoever marks the proceedings of 
Filmer and his masters, as well as his disciples, will 
rather believe, that they have learned from Rome and 
the Jesuits to hate Geneva, than that Geneva and 
Rome can agree in any thing farther than as they are 
obliged to submit to the evidence of truth ; or that 
Geneva and Rome can concur in any design or in- 
terest that is not common to mankind, 

" These men allowed to the people a liberty of de- 
posing their princes. This is a desperate opinion. 
Bellarmine and Calvin look asquint at it." But why 
is this a desperate opinion ? If disagreements happen 
between king and people, why is it a more desperate 
opinion to think the king should be subject to the 
censures of the people, than the people subject to the 
will of the king ? Did the people make the king, or 



GOVERNMENT. 317 

the king make the people ? Is the king for the peo- 
ple, or the people for the king ? Did God create the 
Hebrews, that Saul might reign over them ? Or did 
they, from an opinion of procuring their own good, 
ask a king that might judge them and fight their bat- 
tles ? If God's interposition, which shall be hereafter 
explained, do alter the case, did the Romans make 
Romulus, Numa, Tullus Hostilius, and Tarquinius 
Priscus kings ? Or did they make or beget the Ro- 
mans ? If they were made kings by the Romans, 
'tis certain they that made them sought their own 
good in so doing : and if they were made by and 
for the city and people, I desire to know, if it was 
not better, that when their successors departed from 
the end of their institution, by endeavouring to de- 
stroy it, or all that was good in it, they should be 
censured and ejected, than be permitted to ruin that 
people for whose good they were created ? Was it 
more just that Caligula or Nero should be suffered 
to destroy the poor remains of the Roman nobility 
and people, with the nations subject to that empire, 
than that the race of such monsters should be extin- 
guished, and a great part of mankind, especially the 
best, against whom they were most fierce, preserved 
by their deaths ? 

I presume our author thought these questions 
might be easily decided ; and that no more was re- 
quired to shew the forementioned assertions were 
not all desperate, than to examine the grounds of 
them ; but he seeks to divert us from this inquiry, 
by proposing the dreadful consequences of subjecting 



318 DISCOURSES ON 

kings to the censures of their people ; whereas no 
consequence can destroy any truth ; and the worst 
of this is, that if it were received, some princes 
might be restrained from doing evil; or punished, if 
they will not be restrained. We are therefore only 
to consider, whether the people, senate, or any ma- 
gistracy made by and for the people, have, or can 
have, such a right ; for if they have, whatsoever the 
consequences may be, it must stand : and as the one 
tends to the good of mankind in restraining the lusts 
of wicked kings, the other exposes them, without 
remedy, to the fury of the most savage of all beasts. 
I am not ashamed in this to concur with Buchanan, 
Calvin, or Bellarmine ; and without envy leave Fil- 
mer, and his associates, the glory of maintaining the 
contrary. 

But notwithstanding our author's aversion to truth, 
he confesses, " that Hay ward, Blackwood, Barclay, 
and others, who have bravely vindicated the right of 
kings in this point, do with one consent admit, as 
an unquestionable truth, and assent unto the natural 
liberty and equality of mankind, not so much as once 
questioning or opposing it." And indeed I believe, 
that though since the sin of our first parents the 
earth hath brought forth briars and brambles, and 
the nature of man hath been fruitful only in vice and 
wickedness; neither the authors he mentions, nor 
any others, have had impudence enough to deny such 
evident truth as seems to be planted in the hearts of 
all men ; or to publish doctrines so contrary to com- 
mon sense, virtue, and humanity, till these times. 



GOVERNMENT. 319 

The productions of Laud, Manwaring, Sibthorp, 
Hobbs, Filmer, and Heylin, seem to have been re- 
served as an additional curse to complete the shame 
and misery of our age and country. Those who had 
wit and learning, with something of ingenuity and 
modesty, though they believed that nations might 
possibly make an ill use of their power, and were 
very desirous to maintain the cause of kings, as far 
as they could put any good colour upon it ; yet never 
denied, that some had suffered justly (which could 
not be, if there were no power of judging them) ; 
nor ever asserted any thing that might arm them 
with an irresistible power of doing mischief; animate 
them to persist in the most flagitious courses, with 
assurance of perpetual impunity, or engage nations 
in an inevitable necessity of suffering all manner of 
outrages. They knew, that the actions of those 
princes, who were not altogether detestable, might 
be defended by particular reasons drawn from them, 
or the laws of their country ; and would neither un- 
dertake the defence of such as were abominable, nor 
bring princes, to whom they wished well, into the 
odious extremity of justifying themselves by argu- 
ments that favoured Caligula and Nero, as well as 
themselves, and that must be taken for a confession, 
that they were as bad as could be imagined ; since 
nothing could be said for them that might not as well 
be applied to the worst that had bee n or cou Id be . B ut 
Filmer, Heylin, and their associates, scorning to be re- 
strained by such considerations, boldly lay the ax to the 
root of the tree, and rightly enough affirm, "that the 
whole fabric of that which they call popular sedition 



320 DISCOURSES ON 

would fall to the ground, if the principle of natural 
liberty were removed." And on the other hand, it 
must be acknowledged, that the whole fabric of tyr- 
anny will be much weakened, if we prove, that na- 
tions have a right to make their own laws, constitute 
their own magistrates ; and that such as are so con- 
stituted owe an account of their actions to those by 
whom, and for whom, they are appointed. 



SECTION II. 

IMPLICIT FAITH BELONGS TO FOOLS; AND TRUTH 
IS COMPREHENDED BY EXAMINING 
PRINCIPLES. 

Whilst Filmer's business is to overthrow liberty 
and truth, he in one passage modestly professeth 
" not to meddle with mysteries of state," or " ar- 
cana imperii." He renounces those inquiries thro' 
an implicit faith which never entered into the head 
of any but fools, and such as through a carelessness 
of the point in question, acted as if they were so. 
This is the foundation of the Papal power ; and it can 
stand no longer than those that compose the Romish 
church can be persuaded to submit their consciences 
to the word of the priests, and esteem themselves 
discharged from the necessity of searching the scrip- 
tures in order to know whether the things that are 



GOVERNMENT. 321 

told them are true or false. This may shew whether 
our author or those of Geneva do best agree with the 
Roman doctrine : but his instance is yet more sottish 
than his profession. " An implicit faith," says he, 
"is given to the meanest artificer." I wonder by 
whom ! Who will wear a shoe that hurts him, be- 
cause the shoe-maker tells him it is well made ? Or 
who will live in a house that vields no defence against 
the extremities of weather, because the mason or car- 
penter assures him it is a very good house ? Such as 
have reason, understanding or common sense, will, 
and ought to make use of it in those things that con- 
cern themselves and their posterity, and suspect the 
words of such as are interested in deceiving or per- 
suading them not to see with their own eyes, that 
they may be more easily deceived. This rule obliges 
us so far to search into matters of state, as to exam- 
ine the original principles of government in general, 
and of our own in particular. We cannot distinguish 
truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or know 
what obedience we owe to the magistrate, or what 
we may justly expect from him, unless we know 
what he is, why he is, and by whom he is made to 
be what he is. These perhaps may be called "mys- 
teries of state," and some would persuade us they 
are to be esteemed "arcana;" but whosoever con- 
fesses himself to be ignorant of them, must acknow- 
ledge that he is incapable of giving any judgment 
upon things relating to the superstructure ; and in so 
doing evidently shews to others, that they ought not 
at all to hearken to what he says. 

VOL. I. 2 R 



322 DISCOURSES ON 

His argument to prove this is more admirable. 
"If an implicit faith," says he, " is given to the 
meanest artificer in his craft, much more to a prince 
in the profound secrets of government. n But where 
is the consequence ? If I trust to the judgment of an 
artificer, or one of a more ingenious profession, it is 
not because he is of it, but because I am persuaded 
he does well understand it, and that he will be faith- 
ful to me in things relating to his art. I do not send 
for Lower or Micklethwait when I am sick, nor ask 
the advice of Mainard or Jones in a suit of law, be- 
cause the first are physicians, and the other lawyers : 
but because I think them wise, learned, diligent, and 
faithful, there being a multitude of others who go un- 
der the same name, whose opinion I would never ask. 
Therefore if any conclusion can be drawn from 
thence in favour of princes, it must be of such as 
have all the qualities of ability and integrity, that 
should create this confidence in me ; or it must be 
proved that all princes, inasmuch as they are princes, 
have such qualities. No general conclusion can be 
drawn from the first case, because it must depend 
upon the circumstances, which ought to be particu- 
larly proved; and if the other be asserted, I desire to 
know whether Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vitellius, 
Domitian, Commodus, Heliogabalus, and others not 
unlike to them, had those admirable endowments, 
upon which an implicit faith ought to have been 
grounded ; how they came by them ; and whether 
we have any promise from God, that all princes 
should forever excel in those virtues, or whether we 
by experience find that they do so. If they are or 



GOVERNMENT. 323 

have been wanting in any, the whole falls to the 
ground ; for no man enjoys as a prinee that which is 
not common to all princes ; and if every prince have 
not wisdom to understand these profound secrets, in- 
tegrity to direct him according to what he knows to 
be good, and a sufficient measure of industry and 
valour to protect me, he is not the artificer to whom 
the implicit faith is due. His eyes are as subject to 
dazzle as my own. But it is a shame to insist on 
such a point as this. We see princes of all sorts ; 
they are born as other men : the vilest flatterer dares 
not deny, that they are wise or foolish, good or bad, 
valiant or cowardly, like other men : and the crown 
doth neither bestow extraordinary qualities, ripen 
such as are found in princes sooner than in the mean- 
est, nor preserve them from the decays of age, sick- 
ness, or other accidents, to which all men are sub- 
ject : and if the greatest king in the world fall into 
them, he is as incapable of that mysterious know- 
ledge, and his judgment is as little to be relied on, as 
that of the poorest peasant. 

This matter is not mended by sending us to seek 
those virtues in the ministers which are wanting in 
the prince. The ill effects of Rehoboam's folly could 
not be corrected by the wisdom of Solomon's coun- 
sellors : he rejected them ; and such as are like to 
him will always do the same thing. Nero advised 
with none but musicians, players, chariot drivers, or 
the abominable ministers of his pleasures and, cru- 
elties. Arcadius' senate was chiefly composed of 
buffoons and cooks, influenced by an old rascally 



324 DISCOURSES ON 

eunuch. And it is an eternal truth, that a weak or 
wicked prince can never have a wise council, nor re- 
ceive any benefit by one that is imposed upon him, 
unless they have a power of acting without him ; 
which would render the government in effect aristo- 
cratical, and would probably displease our author as 
much as if it were so in name also. Good and wise 
counsellors do not grow up like mushrooms ; great 
judgment is required in chusing and preparing them. 
If a weak or vicious prince should be so happy as to 
find them chosen to his hand, they would avail him 
nothing. There will ever be a variety of opinions 
amongst them ; and he that is of a perverted judg- 
ment will always chuse the worst of those that are 
proposed, and favour the worst men, as most like to 
himself. Therefore, if this implicit faith be grounded 
upon a supposition of profound wisdom in the prince, 
the foundation is overthrown, and it cannot stand ; 
for to repose confidence in the judgment and integ- 
rity of one that has none, is the most brutish of all 
follies. So that if a prince may have or want the 
qualities upon which my faith in him can be ration- 
ally grounded, I cannot yield the obedience he re- 
quires, unless I search into the secrets relating to 
his person and commands, which he forbids. I 
cannot know how to obey, unless I know in what, 
and to whom : nor in what, unless I know what 
ought to be commanded : nor what ought to be 
commanded, unless I understand the original right 
of the commander, which is the great arcanum. Our 
author finding himself involved in many difficulties, 
proposes an expedient as ridiculous as any thing I hat 



GOVERNMENT. 325 

had gone before, being nothing more than an absurd 
begging the main question, and determining it with- 
out any shadow of proof. He enjoins an active or 
passive obedience, before he shews what should 
oblige or persuade us to it. This indeed were a 
compendious way of obviating that which he calls 
popular sedition, and of exposing all nations, that 
fall under the power of tyrants, to be destroyed ut- 
terly by them. Nero or Domitian would have de- 
sired no more, than that those who would not ex- 
ecute their wicked commands, should patiently have 
suffered their throats to be cut by such as were less 
scrupulous: and the world, that had suffered those 
monsters for some years, must have continued under 
their fury, till all that was good and virtuous had 
been abolished. But in those ages and parts of the 
world, where there hath been any thing of virtue and 
goodness, we may observe a third sort of men, who 
would neither do villanies, nor suffer more than the 
laws did permit, or the consideration of the public 
peace did require. Whilst tyrants with their slaves 
and the instruments of their cruelties were accounted 
the dregs of mankind, and made the objects of de- 
testation and scorn, these men who delivered their 
countries from such plagues were thought to have 
something of divine in them, and have been famous 
above all the rest of mankind to this day. Of this 
sort were Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Thrasibulus, 
Harmodius, Aristogiton, Philopemen, Lucis Brutus, 
Publius Valerius, Marcus Brutus, C. Cassius, M. 
Cato, with a multitude of others amongst the ancient 
heathens. Such as were instruments of the like de- 



326 DISCOURSES ON 

liverances amongst the Hebrews, as Moses, Othniel, 
Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, Samuel, 
David, Jehu, the Maccabees, and others, have from 
the scriptures a certain testimony of the righteous- 
ness of their proceedings, when they neither would 
act what was evil, nor suffer more than was reason- 
able. But least we should learn by their examples, 
and the praises given to them, our author confines 
the subject's choice to acting or suffering, that is, 
doing what is commanded, or lying down to have 
his throat cut, or to see his family and country made 
desolate. This he calls giving to Caesar that which 
is Caesar's ; whereas he ought to have considered, 
that the question is not whether that which is Cae- 
sar's should be rendered to him, for that is to be 
done to all men ; but who is Caesar, and what doth 
of right belong to him, which he no way indicates to 
us : so that the question remains intire, as if he had 
never mentioned it, unless we do in a compendious 
way take his word for the whole. 



SECTION III. 

THE RIGHTS OF PARTICULAR NATIONS CANNOT 
SUBSIST, IF GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONTRARY 
TO THEM ARE RECEIVED AS TRUE. 

Notwithstanding this, our author, if we will 
believe him, "doth not question or quarrel at the 
rights or liberties of this or any other nation." He 



GOVERNMENT. 327 

only denies they can have any such, in subjecting 
them necessarily and universally to the will of one 
man; and says not a word that is not applicable to 
every nation in the world, as well as to our own. 
But as the bitterness of his malice seems to be most 
especially directed against England, I am inclined to 
believe he hurts other countries only by accident, as 
the famous * French lady intended only to poison 
her father, husband, brother, and some more of her 
nearest relations; but rather than they should escape, 
destroyed many other persons of quality, who at 
several times dined with them : and if that ought to 
excuse her, I am content he also should pass uncen- 
sured, though his crimes are incomparably greater 
than those for which she was condemned, or than 
any can be which are not of a public extent. 



SECTION IV. 



TO DEPEND ON THE WILL OF A MAN IS SLAVERY. 

This, as he thinks, is farther sweetened by as- 
serting, that he doth not inquire what the rights of a 
people are, but from whence ; not considering, that 
whilst he denies they can proceed from the laws of 
natural liberty, or any other root than the grace and 

* The Marchioness of Brinvilliers. 



328 DISCOURSES ON 

bounty of the prince, he declares they can have none 
at all- For as liberty solely consists in an indepen- 
dency upon the will of another, and by the name of 
slave, we understand a man who can neither dispose 
of his person or goods, but enjoys all at the will of 
his master: there is no such thing in nature as a 
slave, if those men or nations are not slaves who 
have no other title to what they enjoy than the grace 
of the prince, which he may revoke whensoever he 
pleascth. But there is more than ordinary extrava- 
gance in his assertion, that "the greatest liberty in 
the world is for a people to live under a monarch/' 
when his whole book is to prove, that this monarch 
hath his right from God and nature, is endowed with 
an unlimited power of doing what he pleaseth, and 
can be restrained by no law. If it be liberty to live 
under such a government, I desire to know what is 
slavery. It has been hitherto believed in the world, 
that the Assyrians, Medes, Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, 
and others like them, lived in slavery, because their 
princes were masters of their lives and goods : where- 
as, the Grecians, Italians, Gauls, Germans, Span- 
iards, and Carthaginians, as long as they had any 
strength, virtue, or courage amongst them, were 
esteemed free nations, because they abhorred such a 
subjection. They were and would be governed only 
by laws of their own making: " Potentiora erant 
legam quam hominum imperia."* Even their prin- 
ces had the authority or credit of persuading, rather 
than the power of commanding. But all this was 

* Liv. 1. 2. c. 1. 



GOVERNMENT. 329 

mistaken ; these men were slaves, and the Asiatics 
were free men. By the same rule the Venitians, 
Switzers, Grisons, and Hollanders, are not free na- 
tions : but liberty in its perfection is enjoyed in 
France and Turkey. The intention of our ancestors 
was, without doubt, to establish this amongst us by 
magna charta, and other preceding or subsequent 
laws ; but they ought to have added one clause, that 
the contents of them should be in force only so long 
as it should please the king. King Alfred, upon 
whose laws magna charta was grounded, when he 
said the English nation was as free as the internal 
thoughts of a man, did only mean, that it should be 
so long as it pleased their master. This it seems 
was the end of our law, and we who are born under 
it, and are descended from such as have so valiantly 
defended their rights against the encroachments of 
kings, have followed after vain shadows, and without 
the expense of sweat, treasure, or blood, might have 
secured their beloved liberty, by casting all into the 
king's hands. 

We owe the discovery of these secrets to our 
author, who, after having so gravely declared them, 
thinks no oifence ought to be taken at the freedom he^ 
assumes of examining things relating to the liberty of 
mankind, because he hath the right common to all : 
but he ought to have considered, that in asserting 
that right to himself, he allows it to all mankind. 
And as the temporal good of all men consists in the 
preservation of it, he declares himself to be a mortal 

vol. i. 2 s 



330 DISCOURSES ON 

enemy to those who endeavour to destroy it. If he 
were alive, this would deserve to be answered with 
stones rather than words. He that oppugns the pub- 
lic liberty, overthrows his own, and is guilty of the 
most brutish of all follies, whilst he arrogates to him- 
self that which he denies to all men. 

I cannot but commend his modesty and care, " not 
to detract from the worth of learned men." But it 
seems they were all subject to error, except himself, 
who is rendered infallible through pride, ignorance, 
and impudence. But if Hooker and Aristotle were 
wrong in their fundamentals concerning natural lib- 
erty, how could they be in the right when they built 
upon it ? or if they did mistake, how can they de- 
serve to be cited ? or rather, why is such care taken 
to pervert their sense ? It seems our author is by their 
errors brought to the knowledge of the truth. i * Men 
have heard of a dwarf standing upon the shoulders of 
a giant, who saw farther than the giant:" but now 
that the dwarf standing on the ground sees that 
which the giant did overlook, we must learn from 
him. If there be sense in this, the giant must be 
blind, or have such eyes only as are of no use to him. 
He minded only the things that were far from him. 
These great and learned men mistook the very prin- 
ciple and foundation of all their doctrine. If we will 
believe our author, this misfortune befel them be- 
cause they too much trusted to the schoolmen. He 
names Aristotle ; and, I presume, intends to com- 
prehend Plato, Plutarch, Thucydides, Xenophon, 
Polybius, and all the ancient Grecians, Italians, and 



GOVERNMENT. 331 

i 

others, who asserted the natural freedom of mankind, 
only in imitation of the schoolmen, to advance the 
power of the Pope ; and would have compassed their 
design, if Filmer, and his associates, had not op- 
posed them. These men had taught us to make the 
unnatural distinction between royalist and patriot, 
and keep us from seeing, " that the relation between 
king and people is so great, that their well-being is 
reciprocal," If this be true, how came Tarquin to 
think it good for him to continue king at Rome, 
when the people would turn him out ? or the peo- 
ple to think it good for them to turn him out, when 
he desired to continue in ? Why did the Syracusians 
destroy the tyranny of Dionysius, which he was not 
willing to leave, till he was pulled out by the heels ? 
How could Nero think of burning of Rome? or 
why did Caligula wish the people had but one neck, 
that he might strike it off at one blow, if their welfare 
was thus reciprocal ? 5 Tis enough to say, these were 
wicked or mad men ; for other princes may be so 
also ; and there may be the same reason of differing 
from them. For if the proposition be not universally 
true, 'tis not to be received as true in relation to any, 
till it be particularly proved ; and then 'tis not to be 
imputed to the quality of prince, but to the personal 
virtue of the man. 

I do not find any great matters in the passages 
taken out of Bellarmine, which our author says 
comprehend the strength of all that ever he heard, 
read, or seen produced for the natural liberty of the 
subject : but he not mentioning where they are to 



332 DISCOURSES ON 

be found, I do not think myself obliged to examine 
all his works, to see whether they are rightly cited 
or not : however, there is certainly nothing new in 
them : we see the same, as to the substance, in those 
who wrote many ages before him, as well as in many 
that have lived since his time, who neither minded 
him, nor what he had written. I dare not take 
upon me to give an account of his works, having 
read few of them : but, as he seems to have laid the 
foundation of his discourses in such common no- 
tions as were assented to by all mankind, those who 
follow the same method have no -more regard to Jes- 
uitism and Popery, though he was a Jesuit and Car- 
dinal, than they who agree with Faber, and other 
Jesuits, in the principles of geometry, which na 
sober man did ever deny. 



SECTION V. 



cod leaves to man the choice of forms in 
government; and those who constitute 
one form may abrogate it. 

But Sir Robert " desires to make observations on 
Bellarmine's words, before he examines or refutes 
them." And indeed it were not possible to make 
such stuff of his doctrine as he does, if he had exam- 
ined or did understand it. First, he very wittily con- 



GOVERNMENT. 33$ 

eludes, "that if, by the law of God, the power be 
immediately in the people, God is the author of a de- 
mocracy." And why not, as well as of a tyranny ? 
Is there any thing in it repugnant to the being of 
God ? Is there more reason to impute to God Cali- 
gula's monarchy, than the democracy of Athens ? 
Or is it more for the glory of God, to assert his pres- 
ence with the Ottoman or French monarchs, than 
with the popular governments of the Switzers and 
Grisons ? Is pride, malice, luxury, and violence, so 
suitable to his being, that they who exercise them 
are to be reputed his ministers ? And is modesty, 
humility, equality, and justice, so contrary to his 
nature, that they who live in them should be thought 
his enemies ? Is there any absurdity in saying, that 
since God in goodness and mercy to mankind hath, 
with an equal hand, given to all the benefit of liberty, 
with some measure of understanding how to employ 
it, 'tis lawful for any nation, as occasion shall require, 
to give the exercise of that power to one or more 
men, under certain limitations and conditions ; or to 
retain it to themselves, if they think it good for 
them ? If this may be done, we are at an end of all 
controversies concerning one form of government 
established by God, to which all mankind must sub- 
mit ; and we may safely conclude, that having given 
to all men, in some degree, a capacity of judging 
what is good for themselves, he hath granted to all 
likewise a liberty of inventing such forms as please 
them best, without favouring one more than another. 

His second observation is grounded upon a falsity 
in matter of fact. Bellarmine does not say, that de- 






334 DISCOURSES Otf 

rnocracy is an ordinance of God, more than any other 
government ; nor that the people have no power to 
make use of their right ; but that they do, that is to 
say ordinarily, transmit the exercise of it to one or 
more. And it is certain they do sometimes, espe- 
cially in small cities, retain it in themselves. But 
whether that were observed or not by Bellarmine, 
makes nothing to our cause, which we defend, and 
not him. 

The next point is subtle ; and thinks thereby to 
have brought Bellarmine, and such as agree with 
his principle, to a nonplus. He doubts who shall 
judge of the lawful cause of changing the govern- 
ment ; and says, it is a pestilent conclusion to place 
that power in the multitude." But why should this 
be esteemed pestilent ? or to whom ? If the allow- 
ance of such a power in the senate was pestilent to 
Nero, it was beneficial to mankind ; and the denial 
of it, which would have given to Nero an opportu- 
nity of continuing in his villainies, would have been 
pestilent to the best men, whom he endeavoured to 
destroy, and to all others that received benefit from 
them. But this question depends upon another : 
for if governments are constituted for the pleasure, 
greatness, or profit of one man, he must not be inter- 
rupted ; for the opposing of his will, is to overthrow 
the institution. On the other side, if the good of 
the governed be sought, care must be taken that the 
end be accomplished, though it be with the prejudice 
of the governor. If the power be originally in the 
multitude, and one or more men, to whom the exer- 
cise of it, or a part of it, was committed, had no more 



GOVERNMENT. 535 

than their brethren, till it was conferred on him or 
them, it cannot be believed, that rational creatures 
would advance one or a few of their equals above 
themselves, unless in consideration of their own 
good ; and then I find no inconvenience in leaving to 
them a right of judging, whether this be duly per- 
formed or not. We say in general, " he that in- 
stitutes, may also abrogate ; * most especially when 
the institution is not only by, but for, himself. If the 
multitude therefore do institute, the multitude may 
abrogate ; and they themselves, or those who suc- 
ceed in the same right, can only be fit judges of the 
performance of the ends of the institution. Our au- 
thor may perhaps say, the public peace may be 
hereby disturbed ; but he ought to know, there can 
be no peace where there is no justice ; nor any jus- 
tice, if the government instituted for the good of a 
nation be turned to its ruin. But in plain English, 
the inconvenience with which such as he endeavour 
to affright us, is no more than that he or they, to 
whom the power is given, may be restrained or 
chastised, if they betray their trust ; which I pre- 
sume will displease none, but such as would rather 
subject Rome, with the best part of the world de- 
pending upon it, to the will of Caligula or Nero, than 
Caligula or Nero to the judgment of the senate and 
people ; that is, rather to expose many great and 
brave nations to be destroyed by the rage of a sav- 
age beast, than subject that beast to the judgment of 
all, or the choicest men of them, who can have no in- 

* Cujus est instituerC) ejus est abrogare* 



336 DISCOURSES ON 

terest to pervert them, or other reason to be severe 
to him, than to prevent the mischiefs he would com- 
mit, and to save the people from ruin. 

In the next place he recites an argument of Bel- 
larmine, that " it is evident in scripture God hath 
ordained powers ; but God hath given them to no 
particular person, because by nature all men are 
equal ; therefore he hath given power to the people 
or multitude.' ' I leave him to untie that knot, if he 
can ; but, as it is usual with impostors, he goes 
about by surmises to elude the force of his argu- 
ment, pretending that in some other place he had 
contradicted himself, and acknowledged that every 
man was prince of his posterity; " because, that if 
many men had been created together, they ought all 
to have been princes of their posterity." But it is 
not necessary to argue upon passages cited from au- 
thors, when he that cites them may be justly sus- 
pected of fraud, and neither indicates the place nor 
treatise, lest it should be detected ; most especially 
when we are no way concerned in the author's credit. 
I take Bellarmine's first argument to be strong; and 
if he in some place did contradict it, the hurt is only 
to himself; but in this particular I should not think 
he did it, though I were sure our author had faith- 
fully repeated his words ; for in allowing every man 
to be prince of his posterity, he only says, every man 
should be chief in his own family, and have a power 
over his children, which no man denies : but he 
does not understand Latin, who thinks that the word 
" princeps" doth in any degree signify an absolute 



GOVERNMENT. 337 

power, or a right of transmitting it to his heirs and 
successors, upon which the doctrine of our author 
wholly depends. On the contrary, the same law that 
gave to my father a power over me, gives me the 
like over my children ; and if I had a thousand 
brothers, each of them would have the same over 
their children. Bellarmine's first argument there- 
fore being no way enervated by the alledged passage, 
I may justly insist upon it, and add, that God hath 
not only declared in scripture, but written on the 
heart of every man, that as it is better to be clothed, 
than to go naked ; to live in a house, than to lie in 
the field ; to be defended by the united force of a 
multitude, than to place the hopes of his security 
solely in his own strength ; and to prefer the benefits 
of society, before a savage and barbarous solitude ; 
he also taught them to frame such societies, and to 
establish such laws as were necessary to preserve 
them. And we may as reasonably affirm, that man- 
kind is forever obliged to use no other clothes than 
leather breeches, like Adam ; to live in hollow trees, 
and eat acorns, or to seek, after the model of his house 
for a habitation, and to use no arms except such as 
were known to the patriarchs, as to think that all 
nations forever obliged to be governed as they gov- 
erned their families. This I take to be the genuine 
sense of the scripture, and the most respectful way 
of interpreting the places relating to our purpose. 
It is hard to imagine that God, who hath left all 
things to our choice, that are not evil in themselves, 
should tie us up in this ; and utterly incredible that 

VOL. I. 2 T 



538 DISCOURSES ON 

he should impose upon us a necessity of following 
his will, without declaring it to us. Instead of con- 
stituting a government over his people, consisting of 
many parts, which we take to be a model fit to be 
Imitated by others, he might have declared in a word, 
that the eldest man of the eldest line should be king ; 
and that his will ought to be their law. This had 
been more suitable to the goodness and mercy of 
God, than to leave us in a dark labyrinth, full of 
precipices ; or rather, to make the government given 
to his own people, a false light to lead us to destruc- 
tion. This could not be avoided, if there were such 
a thing as our author calls a " lord paramount over 
his children's children to all generations." We see 
nothing in scripture, of precept or example, that is 
not utterly abhorrent to this chimera. The only 
sort of kings mentioned there with approbation, is 
such a one "as may not raise his heart above his 
brethren."* If God had constituted a lord para- 
mount with an absolute power, and multitudes of na- 
tions were to labour and fight for his greatness and 
pleasure, this were to raise his heart to a height, that 
would make him forget he was a man. Such as are 
versed in scripture, not only know, that it neither 
agrees with the letter or spirit of that book ; but that 
it is unreasonable in itself, unless he were of a spe- 
cies different from the rest of mankind. His exalta- 
tion would not agree with God's indulgence to his 
creatures, though he were the better for it ; much 
less when probably he would be made more unhappy 

* Deut. xyii. 



GOVERNMENT. 339 

and worse, by the pride, luxury, and other vices 
that always attend the highest fortunes. It is no less 
incredible, that God, who disposes all things in wis- 
dom and goodness, and appoints a due place for all, 
should, without distinction, ordain such a power to 
every one succeeding in such a line, as cannot be ex- 
ecuted ; the wise would refuse, and fools cannot take 
upon them the burden of it, without ruin to them- 
selves and such as are under them: or expose man- 
kind to a multitude of other absurdities and mis- 
chiefs ; subjecting the aged to be governed by chil- 
dren ; the wise, to depend on the will of fools ; the 
strong and valiant, to expect defence from the weak 
or cowardly ; and all in general to receive justice 
from him, who neither knows nor cares for it. 



SECTION VI. 



ABRAHAM AND THE PATRIARCHS WERE NOT 
KINGS. 

If any man say, that we are not to seek into the 
depth of God's counsels ; I answer, that if he had, 
for reasons known only to himself, affixed such a right 
to any one line, he would have set a mark upon those 
who come of it, that nations might know to whom 
they owe subjection ; or given some testimony of his 
presence with Filmer and Heylin, if he had sent them 
to reveal so great a mystery. Till that be done, we 
may safely look upon them as the worst of men, and 



340 DISCOURSES ON 

teachers only of lies and follies. This persuades me 
little to examine what would have been, if God had 
at once created many men, or the conclusions that 
can be drawn from Adam's having been alone. For 
nothing can be more evident, than that if many had 
been created, they had been all equal, unless God 
had given a preference to one. All their sons had 
inherited the same right after their death ; and no 
dream was ever more empty, than his whimsey of 
Adam's kingdom, or that of the ensuing patriarchs. 
To say the truth, it is hard to speak seriously of 
Abraham's kingdom, or to think any man to be in 
earnest who mentions it. He was a stranger, and a 
pilgrim in the land where he lived, and pretended to 
no authority beyond his own family, which consisted 
only of a wife and slaves. He lived with Lot as 
with his equal, and would have no contest with him, 
because they were brethren. His wife and servants 
could neither make up nor be any part of a kingdom, 
inasmuch as the despotical government, both in 
practice and principle, differs from the regal. If his 
kingdom was to be grounded on the paternal right, 
it vanished away of itself ; he had no child : Eliezer 
of Damascus, for want of a better, was to be his heir ; 
Lot, though his nephew, Was excluded : he durst 
not own his own wife : he had not one foot of land, 
till he bought a field for a burying place : his three 
hundred and eighteen men were servants (bought 
according to the custom of those days) or their chil- 
dren ; and the war he made with them, was like to 
Gideon's enterprise ; which shews only that God can 
save by few as well as by many, but makes nothing to 



GOVERNMENT. 341 

our author's purpose. For if they had been as many in 
number as the army of Semiramis, they could have 
no relation to the regal, much less to the paternal 
power; for a father doth not buy, but beget children. 

Notwithstanding this, our author bestows the proud 
title of "lord paramount" upon him, and trans- 
mits it to Isaac, who was indeed a king like his father, 
great, admirable, and glorious in wisdom and holi- 
ness, but utterly void of all worldly splendor or power. 
This spiritual kingdom was inherited by Jacob, 
whose title to it was not founded on prerogative of 
birth, but election, and peculiar grace ; but he never 
enjoyed any other worldly inheritance, than the field 
and cave which Abraham had bought for a burying 
place, and the goods he had gained in Laban's 
service. 

The example of Judah's sentence upon Tamar, 
is yet farther from the purpose, if possible ; for he 
was then a member of a private family, the fourth 
son of a father then living ; neither in possession, 
nor under the promise of the privileges of primo- 
geniture, though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi fell 
from it by their sins. Whatsoever therefore the 
right was, which belonged to the head of the family, 
it must have been in Jacob ; but as he professed 
himself a keeper of sheep, as his fathers had been, 
the exercise of that employment was so far from 
regal, that it deserves no explication. If that act 
of Judah is to be imputed to a royal power, I have 
as much as I ask : he, though living with his father, 



342 DISCOURSES ON 

and elder brothers, when he came to be of age to 
have children, had the same power over such as 
were of, or came into his family, as his father had 
over him ; for none can go beyond the power of life 
and death : the same, in the utmost extent, cannot 
at the same time equally belong to many. If it be 
divided equally, it is no more than that universal 
liberty which God hath given to mankind, and every 
man is a king, till he divest himself of his right, in 
consideration of something that he thinks better for 
him. 



SECTION VII. 



NIMROD WAS THE FIRST KING, DURING THE 
LIFE OF CUSH, HAM, SHEM, AND NOAH. 

The creation is exactly described in the scrip, 
ture ; but we know so little of what passed between 
the finishing of it and the flood, that our author may 
say what he pleases, and I may leave him to seek 
his proofs where he can find them. In the mean 
time I utterly deny, that any power did remain in 
the heads of families after the flood, that does in the 
least degree resemble the regal in principle or prac- 
tice. If in this I am mistaken, such power must 
have been in Noah, and transmitted to one of his 
sons. The scripture says only, that he built an 



GOVERNMENT. o43 

altar, sacrificed to the Lord, was a husbandman, 
planted a vineyard, and performed such offices as 
bear nothing of the image of a king, for the space 
of three hundred and fifty years. We have reason 
to believe, that his sons after his death continued in 
the same manner of life, and the equality properly 
belonging to brethren. It is not easy to determine, 
whether Shem or Japheth were the elder ; but Ham 
is declared to be the younger ; and Noah's blessing 
to Shem * seems to be purely prophetical and spirit- 
ual, of what should be accomplished in his posterity ; 
with which Japheth should be persuaded to join. If 
it had been worldly, the whole earth must have been 
brought under him, and have forever continued in 
his race, which never was accomplished, otherwise 
than in the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which relates 
not to our author's lord paramount. 

As to earthly kings, the first of them was Nim- 
rod, the sixth son of Cush the son of Ham, Noah's 
younger and accursed son. This kingdom was set 
up about a hundred and thirty years after the flood, 
whilst Cush, Ham, Shem, and Noah were yet liv- 
ing ; whereas if there were any thing of truth in our 
author's proposition, all mankind must have contin- 
ued under the government of Noah whilst he lived; 
and that power must have been transmitted to Shem, 
who lived about three hundred and seventy years 
after the erection of Nimrod's kingdom ; and must 
have come to Japheth, if he was the elder; but could 

* Gen. ix. 



344 DISCOURSES ON" 

never come to Ham, who is declared to have been 
certainly the younger, and condemned to be a ser- 
vant to them both ; much less to the younger sort 
of his son, whilst he, and those to whom he and 
his posterity were to be subjects, were still living. 

This rule therefore, which the partizans of abso- 
lute monarchy fancy to be universal and perpetual, 
falling out in its first beginning directly contrary to 
what they assert ; and being never known to have 
been recovered, were enough to silence them, if 
they had any thing of modesty or regard to truth. 
But the matter may be carried farther : for the scrip- 
ture doth not only testify, that this kingdom of Nim- 
rod was an usurpation, void of all right, proceeding 
from the most violent and mischievous vices, but 
exercised with the utmost fury that the most wick- 
ed man of the accursed race, who set himself up 
against God and all that is good, could be capable 
of. The progress of this kingdom was suitable to 
its institution : that which was begun in wickedness, 
was carried on with madness, and produced confu- 
sion. The mighty hunter, whom the best inter- 
preters call a cruel tyrant, receding from the simpli- 
city and innocence of the patriarchs, who were hus- 
bandmen or shepherds, arrogating to himself a do- 
minion over Sheni, to whom he and his fathers were 
to be servants, did thereby so peculiarly become the 
heir of God's curse, that whatsoever hath been said 
to this day of the power that did most directly 
set itself against God and his people, hath related 
literally to the Babel that he built, or figuratively to 



GOVERNMENT. 345 

that which resembles it in pride, cruelty, injustice, 
and madness. 

But the shameless rage of some of these writers 
is such, that they rather choose to ascribe the begin- 
ning of their idol to this odious violence, than to 
own it from the consent of a willing people ; as if 
they thought, that as all action must be suitable to 
its principle, so that which is unjust in its practice, 
ought to scorn to be derived from that which is not 
detestable in its principle. It is hardly worth our 
pains to examine whether the nations, that went 
from Babel after the confusion of languages, were 
more or less than seventy-two, for they seem not to 
have gone according to families, but every one to 
have associated himself to those that understood his 
speech ; and the chief of the fathers, as Noah and 
his sons, were not there, or were subject to Nim- 
rod ; each of which points doth destroy, even in the 
root, all pretence to paternal government. Besides, 
it is evident in scripture, that Noah lived three hun- 
dred and fifty years after the flood ; Shem five hun- 
dred ; Abraham was born about two hundred and 
ninety years after the flood, and lived one hundred 
seventy-five years : he was therefore born under the 
government of Noah, and died under that of Shem : 
he could not therefore exercise a regal power whilst 
he lived, for that was in Shem : so that in leaving 
his country, and setting up of a family for himself 
that never acknowledged any superior, and never 
pretending to reign over any other, he fully shewed 

VOL. I. 2 U 



146 



DISCOURSES ON 



he thought himself free, and to owe subjection to 
none : and, being as far from arrogating to himself 
any power upon the title of paternity, as from ac- 
knowledging it in any other, left every one to the 
same liberty. 

The punctual enumeration of the years that the 
fathers of the holy seed lived, gives us ground of mak- 
ing a more than probable conjecture, that they of 
the collateral lines were, in number of days, not un- 
equal to them ; and if that be true, Ham and Cush 
were alive when Nimrod set himself up to be king. 
He must therefore have usurped this power over his 
father, grandfather, and great grandfather ; or, which 
is more probable, he turned into violence and op- 
pression the power given to him by a multitude ; 
which, like a flock without a shepherd, not knowing 
whom to obey, set him up to be their chief. I leave 
to our author the liberty of choosing which of these 
two doth best suit with his paternal monarchy ; but 
as far as I can understand, the first is directly against 
it, as well as against the laws of God and man ; the 
other, being from the consent of the multitude, can- 
not be extended farther than they would have it, nor 
turned to their prejudice, without the most abomina- 
ble ingratitude and treachery, from whence no right 
can be derived nor any justifiable example taken. 



Nevertheless if our author resolve that Abraham 
was also a king, he must presume that Shem did 
emancipate him before he went to seek his fortune. 
This was not a kingly posture ; but I will not con- 



GOVERNMENT. 347 

tradict him, if I may know over whom he reigned. 
Paternal monarchy is exercised by the father of the 
family over his descendants, or such as had been 
under the dominion of him whose heir he is. But 
Abraham had neither of these : those of his nearest 
kindred continued in Mesopotamia, as appears by 
what is said of Bethuel and Laban. He had only 
Lot with him, over whom he pretended no right : 
he had no children till he was an hundred years old 
(that is to say, he was a king without a subject) ; 
and then he had but one. I have heard, that * 
" sovereigns do impatiently bear competitors;" but 
now I find subjection also doth admit of none. Abra- 
ham's kingdom was too great when he had two chil- 
dren ; and, to disburden it, Ishmael must be ex- 
pelled soon after the birth of Isaac. He observed 
the same method after the death of Sarah : he had 
children by Keturah ; but he gave them gifts, and 
sent them away, leaving Isaac like a stoical king 
reigning in and over himself, without any other sub- 
ject till the birth of Jacob and Esau. But his king- 
dom was not to be of a larger extent than that of his 
father : the two twins could not agree ; Jacob was 
sent away by his mother ; he reigned over Esau 
only, and it is not easy to determine who was the 
heir of his worldly kingdom ; for though Jacob had 
the birthright, we do not find he had any goods, than 
what he had gotten in Laban's service. If our au- 
thor say true, the right of primogeniture, with the 



* Omnisque potestas impatiens consortis erit. 

Lucan. 1. 1. v. 92- 



348 DISCOURSES ON 

dominion perpetually annexed by the laws of God 
and nature, must go to the eldest : Isaac therefore, 
though he had not been deceived, could not have 
conferred it upon the younger ; for man cannot 
overthrow what God and nature have instituted. 
Jacob, in the court language, had been a double 
rebel, in beguiling his father, and supplanting his 
brother. The blessing of being lord over his breth- 
ren could not have taken place. Or if Isaac had 
power, and his act was good, the prerogative of the 
elder is not rooted in the law of God or nature, but 
is a matter of conveniency only, which may be 
changed at the will of the father, whether he know 
what he does or not. But if this paternal right to 
dominion were of any value, or dominion over men 
were a thing to be desired, why did Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob content themselves with such a 
narrow territory, when, after the death of their an- 
cestors, they ought, according to that rule, to have 
been lords of the world ? All authors conclude, that 
Shem was the eldest by birth, or preferred by the 
appointment of God, so as the right must have been 
in him, and from him transmitted to Abraham and 
Isaac ; but if they were so possessed with the con- 
templation of a heavenly kingdom as not to care 
for the greatest on earth, it is strange that Esau, 
whose modesty is not much commended, should so 
far forget his interest, as neither to lay claim to the 
empire of the world, nor dispute with his brother 
the possession of the field and cave bought by Abra- 
ham, but rather to fight for a dwelling upon mount 
Seir, that was neither possessed by, nor promised 



GOVERNMENT. 349 

to, his fathers. If he was fallen from his right, Ja- 
cob might have claimed it : but God was his inher- 
itance ; and, being assured of his blessing, he con- 
tented himself with what he could gain by his in- 
dustry, in a way that was not at all suitable to the 
pomp and majesty of a king. Which way soever 
therefore the business be turned, whether, according 
to Isaac's blessing, Esau should serve Jacob ; or our 
author's opinion, Jacob must serve Esau ; neither 
of the two was effected in their persons : and the 
kingdom of two being divided into two, each of 
them remained lord of himself. 



SECTION VIII. 



THE POWER OF A FATHER BELONGS ONLY TO A 
FATHER. 

This leads us to an easy determination of the 
question, which our author thinks insoluble. " If 
Adam was lord of his children, he doth not see how 
any can be free from the subjection of his parents." 
For as no good man will ever desire to be free from 
the respect that is due to his father, who did beget 
and educate him, no wise man will ever think the 
like to be due to his brother or nephew, that did 
neither. If Esau and Jacob were equally free ; if 
Noah, as our author affirms, divided Europe, Asia, 



350 DISCOURSES ON 

and Africa amongst his three sons, though he can- 
not prove it ; and if seventy-two nations, under so 
many heads or kings, went from Babylon to people 
the earth about a hundred and thirty years after the 
flood, I know not why, according to the same rule 
and proportion, it may not be safely concluded that 
in four thousand years kings are so multiplied, as to 
be in number equal to the men that are in the world ; 
that is to say, they are, according to the laws of 
God and nature, all free, and independent upon each 
other, as Shem, Ham, and Japheth were. And 
therefore, though Adam and Noah had reigned 
alone, when there were no men in the world, ex- 
cept such as issued from them, that is no reason 
why any other should reign over those that he hath 
not begotten. As the right of Noah was divided 
amongst the children he left, and when he was dead 
no one of them depended on the other, because no 
one of them was father of the other ; and the right 
of a father can only belong to him that is so ; the 
like must forever attend every other father in the 
world. This paternal power must necessarily accrue 
to every father : he is a king by the same right as 
the sons of Noah ; and how numerous soever fam- 
ilies may be upon the increase of mankind, they are 
all free till they agree to recede from their own 
right and join together in or under one govern- 
ment, according to such laws as best please them- 
selves. 



GOVERNMENT. 351 



SECTION IX. 

SUCH AS ENTER INTO SOCIETY, MUST IN SOME 
DEGREE DIMINISH THEIR LIBERTY. 

Reason leads them to this : no one man or family 
is able to provide that which is requisite for their 
convenience or security, whilst every one has an 
equal right to every thing, and none acknowledges a 
superior to determine the controversies that upon 
such occasions must continually arise, and will pro- 
bably be so many and great that mankind cannot 
bear them. Therefore, though I do not believe 
that Bellarmine said, a commonwealth could not 
exercise its power; for he could not be ignorant that 
Rome and Athens did exercise theirs, and that all 
the regular kingdoms in the world are common- 
wealths ; yet there is nothing of absurdity in saying, 
that man cannot continue in the perpetual and entire 
fruition of the liberty that God hath given him. 
The liberty of one is thwarted by that of another ; 
and whilst they are all equal, none will yield to any, 
otherwise than by a general consent. This is the 
ground of all just governments ; for violence or 
fraud can create no right; and the same consent 
gives the form to them all, how much soever they 
differ from each other. Some small numbers of 
men, living within the precincts of one city, have, 
as it were, cast into a common stock, the right 
which they had of governing themselves and chil- 



352 DISCOURSES ON 

dren, and by common consent joining in one body, 
exercised such power over every single person as 
seemed beneficial to the whole ; and this men call 
perfect " democracy." Others chose rather to be 
governed by a select number of such as excelled 
most in wisdom and virtue ; and this, according to 
the signification of the word, was called " aristoc- 
racy;" or when one man excelled all others, the 
government was put into his hands under the name 
of " monarchy." But the wisest, best, and far the 
greatest part of mankind, rejecting these simple 
species, did form governments mixed or composed 
of the three, as shall be proved hereafter ; which 
commonly received their respective denomination 
from the great part that prevailed, and did deserve 
praise or blame, as they were well or ill propor- 
tioned. 

It were a folly hereupon to say, that the liberty for 
which we contend is of no use to us, since we can- 
not endure the solitude, barbarity, weakness, want, 
misery and dangers that accompany it whilst we 
live alone, nor can enter into a society without re- 
signing it ; for the choice of that society, and the lib- 
erty of framing it according to our own wills, for our 
own good, is all we seek. This remains to us whilst 
we form governments, that we ourselves are judges 
how far it is good for us to recede from our natural 
liberty : which is of so great importance, that from 
thence only we can know whether we are freemen or 
slaves ; and the difference between the best govern- 
ment and the worst, doth wholly depend upon a right 



GOVERNMENT. 353 

or wrong exercise of that power. If men are nat- 
urally free, such as have wisdom and understanding 
will always frame good governments ; but if they are 
born under the necessity of a perpetual slavery, no 
wisdom can be of use to them ; but all must forever 
depend on the will of their lords, how cruel, mad, 
proud, or wicked soever they be. 



SECTION X. 



NO MAN COMES TO COMMAND MANY, UNLESS BY 
CONSENT OR BY FORCE. 

But because I cannot believe God hath created 
man in such a state of misery and slavery as I just 
now mentioned ; by discovering the vanity of our 
author's whimsical patriarchal kingdom, I am led to 
a certain conclusion, that every father of a family is 
free and exempt from the domination of any other, 
as the seventy-two that went from Babel were. It is 
hard to comprehend how one man can come to be 
master of many, equal to himself in right, unless it 
be by consent, or by force. If by consent, we are 
at an end of our controversies : governments, and 
the magistrates that execute them, are created by 
man. They who give a being to them, cannot but 
have a right of regulating, limiting, and directing 

vol. i. 2 w 



354 DISCOURSES ON 

them as best pleaseth themselves ; and all our au- 
thor's assertions concerning the absolute power of 
one man, fall to the ground : if by force, we are to 
examine how it can be possible or justifiable. This 
subduing by force we call conquest, but as he that 
forceth must be stronger than those that are forced, to 
talk of one man who in strength exceeds many mil- 
lions of men, is to go beyond the extravagance of 
fables and romances. This wound is not cured by 
saying, that he first conquers one, and then more, 
and with their help others ; for as to matter of fact, 
the first news we hear of Nimrod is, that he reigned 
over a great multitude, and built vast cities ; and we 
know of no kingdom in the world, that did not begin 
with a greater number than one man could possibly 
subdue. If they who chose one to be their head, 
did, under his conduct subdue others, they were 
fellow- conquerors with him ; and nothing can be 
more brutish, than to think, that by their virtue and 
valour they had purchased perpetual slavery to them- 
selves, and their posterity. But if it were possible, it 
could not be justifiable; and whilst our dispute is 
concerning right, that which ought not to be is no 
more to be received than if it could not be. No 
right can come by conquest, unless there were a 
right of making that conquest, which, by reason of 
the equality that our author confesses to have been 
amongst the heads of families, and as I have proved 
goes into infinity, can never be on the aggressor's 
side. No man can justly impose any thing upon 
those who owe him nothing. Our author, there- 
fore, who ascribes the enlargement of Nimrod's 



GOVERNMENT. 355 

kingdom to " usurpation and tyranny," might as 
well have acknowledged the same in the beginning, 
as he says all other authors have done. However, 
he ought not to have imputed to Sir Waltar Raleigh 
an approbation of his right, as lord or king over his 
family : for he could never think him to be a lord 
by the right of a father, who, by that rule, must 
have lived and died a slave to his fathers that over- 
lived him. Whosoever therefore, like Nimrod, 
grounds his pretensions of right upon usurpation 
and tyranny, declares himself to be like Nimrod, 
an usurper and a tyrant, that is, an enemy to God 
and man, and to have no right at all. That which 
was unjust in its beginning, can of itself never 
change its nature. " Tempus in se," saith Grotius, 
" nallam habet vim effectricem^^ He that per- 
sists in doing injustice, aggravates it, and takes 
upon himself all the guilt of his predecessors. But 
if there be a king in the world that claims a right 
by conquest, and would justify it, he might do 
well to tell whom he conquered, when, with what 
assistance, and upon what reason he undertook the 
war ; for he can ground no title upon the obscurity 
of an unsearchable antiquity ; and if he does it not, 
he ought to be looked upon as an usurping Nimrod. 

* Lib. 2. c. 4. \ 1. Duratio temporis naturam rei non im- 
mutat. Lib. 1. c. 3. § 1 1. n. 2. 



356 DISCOURSES ON 



SECTION XI* 

THE PRETENDED PATERNAL RIGHT IS DIVISIBLE 
OR INDIVISIBLE I IF DIVISIBLE, IT IS EX- 
TINGUISHED ; IF INDIVISIBLE, UNIVERSAL. 

This paternal right to regality, if there be any thing 
in it, is divisible or indivisible ; if indivisible, as Adam 
hath but one heir, one man is rightly lord of the whole 
world, and neither Nimrod nor any of his successors 
could ever have been kings, nor the seventy-two 
that went from Babylon : Noah survived him near 
two hundred years : Shem continued one hundred 
and fifty years longer. The dominion must have 
been in him, and by him transmitted to his posterity 
forever. Those that call themselves kings in all 
other nations, set themselves up against the law of 
God and nature : this is the man we are to seek out, 
that we may yield obedience to him, I know not 
where to find him ; but he must be of the race of 
Abraham. Shem was preferred before his brethren : 
the inheritance that could not be divided must come 
to him, and from him to Isaac, who was the first of 
his descendants that outlived him. It is pity that 
Jacob did not know this, and that the lord of all the 
earth, through ignorance of his title, should be forced 
to keep one of his subject's sheep for w r ages ; and 
strange, that he who had wit enough to supplant his 
brother, did so little understand his own bargain, as 
not to know, that he had bought the perpetual em- 



GOVERNMENT. 357 

pire of the world. If in conscience he could not 
take such a price for a dish of pottage, it must re- 
main in Esau : however, our lord paramount must 
come from Isaac. If the deed of sale made by Esau 
be good, we must seek him amongst the Jews ; if 
he could not easily divest himself of his right, it 
must remain amongst his descendants, who are 
Turks. We need not scruple the reception of 
either, since the late Scots act tells us, " that kings 
derive their royal power from God alone ; and no 
difference of religion, &x. can divert the right of 
succession." But I know not what we shall do, if 
we cannot find this man; for, " de non apparen- 
tibus 8f non existentibus eadem est ratio." The 
right must fall, if there be none to inherit : if we do 
not know who he is that hath the right, we do not 
know who is near to him : all mankind must inherit 
the right, to which every one hath an equal title ; 
and that which is dominion, if in one, when it is 
equally divided amongst all men, is that universal 
liberty which I assert. Wherefore I leave it to the 
choice of such as have inherited our author's opin- 
ions, to produce this Jew or Turk that ought to be 
lord of the whole earth, or to prove a better title in 
some other person, and to persuade all the princes 
and nations of the world to submit : if this be not 
done, it must be confessed this paternal right is a 
mere whimsical fiction, and that no man by birth 
hath a right over another, or can have any, unless 
by the concession of those who are concerned. 

If this right to an universal empire be divisi- 
ble, Noah did actually divide it among his three 



358 DISCOURSES ON 

sons : seventy-and-two absolute monarchs did at once 
arise out of the multitude that had assembled 
at Babel : Noah, nor his sons, nor any of the 
holy seed, nor probably any elder than Nim- 
rod having been there, many other monarchs must 
necessarily have arisen from them. Abraham, 
as our author says, was a king : Lot must have 
been so also ; for they were equals : his sons, Am- 
nion and Moab, had no dependance upon the de- 
scendants of Abraham. Ishmael and Esau set up 
for themselves, and great nations came of them : 
Abraham's sons by Keturah did so also ; that is to 
say, every one, as soon as he came to be of age to 
provide for himself, did so, without retaining any 
dependance upon the stock from whence he came : 
those of that stock, or the head of it, pretended to 
no right over those who went from him. Nay, near- 
ness in blood was so little regarded, that though 
Lot was Abraham's brother's son, Eliezer his serv- 
ant had been his heir, if he had died childless. 
The like continued amongst Jacob's sons ; no ju- 
risdiction was given to one above the rest : an 
equal division of land was made amongst them : 
their judges and magistrates were of several tribes 
and families, without any other preference of one 
before another, than what did arise from the advan- 
tages God had given to any particular person. This I 
take to be a proof of the utmost extent and certainty, 
that the equality amongst mankind was then perfect : 
he therefore that will deny it to be so now, ought to 
prove, that neither the prophets, patriarchs, or any 
other men, did ever understand or regard the law de- 
livered by God and nature to mankind ; or that having 



GOVERNMENT. 359 

been common and free at the first, and so continued 
for many hundreds of years after the flood, it was 
afterwards abolished, and a new one introduced. 
He that asserts this must prove it : but till it does 
appear to us; when, where, how, and by wham this 
was done, we may safely believe there is no such 
thing ; and that no man is or can be a lord amongst 
us, till we make him so; and that by nature we are 
all brethren. 

Our author, by endeavouring farther to illustrate 
the patriarchal power, destroys it, and cannot deny 
to any man the right which he acknowledges to have 
been in Ishmael and Esau. But if every man hath 
a right of setting up for himself with his family, or 
before he has any, he cannot but have a right of join- 
ing with others if he pleases. As his joining or not 
joining with others, and the choice of those others, 
depends upon his own will, he cannot but have a 
right of judging upon what conditions it is good for 
him to enter into such a society, as must necessarily 
hinder him from exercising the right which he has 
originally in himself. But as it cannot be imagined, 
that men should generally put such fetters upon 
themselves, unless it were in expectation of a greater 
good that was thereby to accrue to them, no more 
can be required to prove, that they do voluntarily 
enter into these societies, institute them for their own 
good, and prescribe such rules and forms to them as 
best please themselves, without giving account to 
any. But if every man be free till he enter into such 
a society as he chuseth for his own good, and those 



360 DISCOURSES ON 

societies may regulate themselves as they think fit, 
no more can be required to prove the natural equality 
in which all men are born, and continue, till they 
resign it as into a common stock, in such measure 
as they think fit for the constituting of societies for 
their own good, which I assert, and our author denies* 



SECTION XII. 

THERE WAS NO SHADOW OF A PATERNAL ZING- 
DOM AMONGST THE HEBREWS, NOR PRECEPT 
FOR IT. 

Our author is so modest to confess, that Jacob's 
kingdom, consisting of seventy-two persons, was 
swallowed up by the power of the greater monarch 
Pharaoh : but if this was an act of tyranny, it is 
strange that the sacred and eternal right, grounded 
upon the immutable laws of God and nature, should 
not be restored to God's chosen people, when he 
delivered them from that tyranny. Why was not 
Jacob's monarchy conferred upon his right heir? 
How came the people to neglect a point of such im- 
portance ? Or if they did forget it, why did not 
Moses put them in mind of it ? Why did not Jacob 
declare to whom it did belong ? Or if he is under- 
stood to have declared it, in saying the sceptre should 
not depart from Judah, why was it not delivered 



GOVERNMENT. 361 

into his hands, or into his heirs ? If he was hard 
to be found in a people of one kindred, but four 
degrees removed from Jacob their head, who were 
exact in observing genealogies, how can we hope to 
find him after so many thousand years, when we do 
not so much as know from whom we are derived ? 
or rather how comes that right, which is eternal and 
universal, to have been nipped in the bud, and so 
abolished before it could take any effect in the world, 
as never to have been heard of amongst the Gen- 
tiles, nor the people of God, either before or after 
the captivity, from the death of Jacob to this day ; 
this I assert, and I give up the cause, if I do not 
prove it. To this end I begin with Moses and 
Aaron, the first rulers of the people, who were nei- 
ther of the eldest tribe according to birth, nor the 
disposition of Jacob, if he did, or could given it to 
any ; nor were they of the eldest line of their own 
tribe ; and even between them the superiority was 
given to Moses, who was the younger, as it is said, 
" I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron 
thy brother shall be thy prophet." If Moses was a 
king, as our author says, but I deny, and shall 
hereafter prove, the matter is worse : he must have 
been an usurper of a most unjust dominion over his 
brethren ; and this patriarchal power, which by the 
law of God was to be perpetually fixed in his de- 
scendants, perished with him, and his sons continu- 
ed in an obscure rank amongst the Levites. Joshua 
of the tribe of Ephraim succeeded him ; Othniel 
was of Judah, Ehud of Benjamin, Barak of Nap- 

VOL. I. 2 X 



362 DISCOURSES ON 

thalim, and Gideon of Manasseh. The other 
judges were of several tribes ; and they being dead, 
their children lay hid amongst the common people, 
and we hear no more of them. The first king was 
taken out of the least family of the least and young- 
est tribe. The second, whilst the children of the 
first king were yet alive, was the youngest of eight 
sons of an obscure man in the tribe of Judah : Solo- 
mon, one of his youngest sons, succeeded him : 
ten tribes deserted Rehoboam, and by the command 
of God set up Jeroboam to be their king. The 
kingdom of Israel, by the destruction of one family, 
passed into another : that of Judah by God's pecu- 
liar promise continued in David's race till the cap- 
tivity ; but we know not that the eldest son was 
ever preferred, and have no reason to promise it. 
David, their most reverenced king, left no pre- 
cept for it, and gave an example to the contrary : 
he did not set up the eldest, but the wisest. 
After the captivity they who had most wisdom 
or valour to defend the people, were thought 
most fit to command ; and the kingdom at the last 
came to the Asmonean race, whilst the posterity of 
David was buried in the mass of the common peo- 
ple, and utterly deprived of all worldly rule or glory. 
If the judges had not a regal power, or the regal 
were only just as instituted by God, and eternally 
annexed to paternity, all that they did was evil : 
there could be nothing of justice in the powers ex- 
ercised by Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, and the 
rest of the judges. If the power was regal and just, it 
must have continued in the descendants of the first : 



GOVERNMENT. 363 

Saul, David, and Solomon could never have been 
kings ; the right failing in them, their descendants 
could inherit none from them ; and the others after 
the captivity were guilty of the like injustice. 

Now as the rule is not general, to which there is 
any one just exception, there is not one of these 
examples that would not overthrow our author's 
doctrine : if one deviation from it were lawful, 
another might be, and so to infinity. But the ut- 
most degree of impudent madness to which perhaps 
any man in the world hath ever arrived, is" to assert 
that to be universal and perpetual, which cannot be 
verified by any one example to have been in any 
place of the world, nor justified by any precept. 

If it be objected, that all these things were done 
by God's immediate disposition : I answer, that it 
were an impious madness to believe, that God did 
perpetually send his prophets to overthrow what he 
had ordained from the beginning, and as it were in 
spite to bring the minds of men into extricable con- 
fusion and darkness ; and by particular commands 
to overthrow his universal and eternal law. But to 
render this point more clear, I desire it may be con- 
sidered, that we have but three ways of distinguishing 
between good and evil : . 

I. When God by his word reveals it to us. 

II. When by his deeds he declareth it : because that 
which he does is good, as that which he says is true. 



364 DISCOURSES ON 

III. By the light of reason ; which is good, inas- 
much as it is from God. 

And first : It cannot be said we have an explicit 
word for that continuance of the power in the eldest, 
for it appears not : and having none, we might con- 
clude it to be left to our liberty. For it agrees not 
with the goodness of God to leave us in a perpetual 
ignorance of his will in a matter of so great import- 
ance ; nor to have suffered his own people, or any 
other, to persist, without the least reproof or admo- 
nition, in a perpetual opposition to it, if it had dis- 
pleased him. 

To the second : The dispensations of his provi- 
dence, which are the emanations of his will, have 
gone contrary to this pretended law. There can 
therefore be no such thing ; for God is constant to 
himself : his works do not contradict his word ; and 
both of them do equally declare to us that which is 
good. 

Thirdly : If there be any precept, that by the light 
of nature we can in matters of this kind look upon 
as certain, it is, that the government of a people 
should be given to him that can best perform the 
duties of it. No man has it for himself, or from 
himself; but for and from those, who, before he had 
it, were his equals, that he may do good to them. 
If there were a man, who in wisdom, valour, justice, 
and purity, surpassed all others, he might be called 
a king by nature ; because he is best able to bear the 



GOVERNMENT. 365 

weight of so great a charge ; and, like a good shep- 
herd, to lead the people to good. " Detur digniori" 
is the voice of reason : and, that we may be sure 
" detur seniori" is not so, Solomon tells us, " that 
a wise child is better than an old and foolish king." 
But if this pretended right do not belong to him that 
is truly the eldest, nothing can be more absurd than 
a fantastical pretence to a right deduced from him 
that is not so. Now, lest I should be thought to fol- 
low my own inventions, and call them reason, or the 
light of God in us, I desire it may be observed, that 
God himself has ever taken this method. When 
he raised up Moses to be the leader of his people, he 
endowed him with the most admirable gifts of his 
Spirit that ever he bestowed upon a man : when he 
chose seventy men to assist him, he endowed them 
with the same Spirit. Joshua had no other title to 
succeed him than the like evidence of God's presence 
with him. When die people, through sin, fell into 
misery, he did not seek out their descendants, and 
such as boasted in a prerogative of birth ; but shewed 
whom he designed for their deliverer, by bestowing 
such gifts upon him as were required for the per- 
formance of his work ; and never failed of doing this, 
till that miserable, sinful people, rejecting God and 
his government, desired that which was in use 
amongst their accursed neighbours, that they might 
be as like to them in the most shameful slavery to 
man, as in the worship of idols set up against God. 

But if this pretended right be grounded upon no- 



BISCOURSES ON 



word or work of God, nor the reason of man, it is to 
be accounted a mere figment, that hath nothing of 
truth in it. 



SECTION XIII. 

IF THE PATERNAL RIGHT HAD INCLUDED DO- 
MINION, AND WAS TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A 
SINGLE HEIR, IT MUST PERISH IF HE WERE 
NOT KNOWN ; AND COULD BE APPLIED TO NO 
OTHER PERSON. 



Having shewed that the first kings were not 
fathers, nor the first fathers kings ; that all the kings 
of the Jews and Gentiles mentioned in scripture 
came in upon titles different from, and inconsistent 
with, that of paternity ; and that we are not led by 
the word nor the works of God, nor the reason of 
man, or light of nature, to believe there is any such 
thing ; we may safely conclude there never was any 
such thing, or that it never had any effect ; which 
to us is the same. It is as ridiculous to think of re- 
trieving that which from the beginning of the world 
was lost, as to create that which never was. But I 
may go farther, and affirm, that though there had 
been such a right to the first fathers of mankind, 
exercised by them, and for some ages individually 



GOVERNMENT. 567 

transmitted to their eldest sons, it must necessarily 
perish ; since the generations of men are so confus- 
ed, that no man knows his own original ; and con- 
sequently this heir is no where to be found ; for it 
is a folly for a man to pretend to an inheritance, who 
cannot prove himself to be the right heir. If this be 
not true, I desire to know from which of Noah's 
sons the kings of England, France, or Spain, do de- 
duce their original ; or what reason they can give, 
why the title to dominion, which is fancied to be in 
Noah, did rather belong to the first of their respec- 
tive races that attained to the crowns they now enjoy, 
than to the meanest peasant of their kingdoms ; or 
how that can be transmitted to them, which was not 
in the first. We know, that no man can give what 
he hath not ; that if there be no giver, there is no 
gift ; if there be no root, there can be no branch ; 
and that the first point failing, all that should be de- 
rived from it must necessarily fail. 

Our author, who is good at resolving difficulties, 
shews us an easy way out of this strait. " 'Tis 
true," says he, " all kings are not natural parents 
of their subjects ; yet they either are, or are to be 
reputed, the next heirs to those first progenitors, 
who were at first the natural parents of the whole 
people, and in their right succeed to the exercise of 
the supreme jurisdiction : and such heirs are not 
only lords of their own children, but also of their 
brethren, and all those that were subject to their 
father, &c. By this means it comes to pass, that 



368 DISCOURSES ON 

many a child succeeding a king hath the right of a 
father over many a grey-headed multitude, and hath 
the title of pater patriae." 

An assertion comprehending so many points, 
upon which the most important rights of all man- 
kind do depend, might deserve some proof; but he, 
being of opinion we ought to take it upon his credit, 
doth not vouchsafe to give us so much as the 
shadow of any. Nevertheless, being unwilling either 
crudely to receive, or rashly to reject it, I shall 
take the liberty of examining the proposition, and 
hope I may be pardoned, if I dwell a little more 
than ordinary upon that which is the foundation of 
his work. 

We are beholden to him for confessing modestly, 
that all kings are not the natural fathers of their 
people, and sparing us the pains of proving, that the 
kings of Persia, who reigned from the Indies to the 
Hellespont, did not beget all the men that lived in 
those countries ; or that the kings of France and 
Spain, who began to reign before they were five 
years old, were not the natural fathers of the nations 
under them. But if all kings are not fathers, none 
are, as they are kings : if any one is, or ever was, 
the rights of paternity belong to him, and to no other 
who is not so also. This must be made evident ; for 
matters of such importance require proof, and ought 
not to be taken upon supposition. If Filmer therefore 
will pretend, that the right of father belongs to any one 



GOVERNMENT. 369 

king, he must prove that he is the father of his 
people ; for otherwise it doth not appertain to him ; 
he is not the man we seek. 

It is no less absurd to say, he is to be reputed 
heir to the first progenitor : for it must be first 
proved, tnat the nation did descend from one single 
progenitor without mixture of other races : that this 
progenitor was the man to whom Noah (according 
to Filmer's whimsical division of Asia, Europe, 
and Africa, among his sons) did give the land now 
inhabited by that people : that this division so made 
was not capable of subdivisions ; and that this man 
is by a true and uninterrupted succession descended 
from the first and eldest line of that progenitor ; and 
all fails, if every one of these points be not made 
good. If there never was any such man who had 
that right, it cannot be inherited from him. If by 
the same rule that a parcel of the world was alloted 
to him, that parcel might be subdivided among his 
children as they increased, the subdivisions may be 
infinite, and the right of dominion thereby destroyed. 
If several nations inhabit the same land, they owe 
obedience to several fathers : that which is due to 
their true father, cannot be rendered to him that is 
not so ; for he would by that means be deprived of 
the right which is inseparably annexed to his person : 
and lastly, whatsoever the right of an heir may be, it 
can belong only to him that is heir. 

Lest any should be seduced from these plain truths 
by frivolous suggestions, it is good to consider, that 

VOL. I. 2 Y 



370 DISCOURSES ON 

the title of " pater patri<£," with which our author 
would cheat us, hath no relation to the matters of 
right, upon which we dispute. It is a figurative 
speech, that may have been rightly enough applied 
to some excellent princes on account of their care 
and love to their people, resembling that of a father 
to his children ; and can relate to none but those 
who had it. No man that had common sense, or 
valued truth, did ever call Phalaris, Dionysius, Na- 
bis, Nero, or Caligula, fathers of their countries ; 
but monsters, that to the utmost of their power en- 
deavoured their destruction : which is enough to 
prove that sacred name cannot be given to all, and in 
consequence to none but such as by their virtue, 
piety, and good government, do deserve it. 

These matters will yet appear more evident, if it 
be considered, that though Noah had reigned as a 
king ; that Zoroaster, as some suppose, was Ham, 
who reigned over his children ; and that thereby 
some right might perhaps be derived to such as suc- 
ceeded them ; yet this can have no influence upon 
such as have not the like original ; and no man is 
to be presumed to have it, till it be proved, since we 
have proved that many had it not. If Nimrod set 
himself up against his grandfather ; and Ninus, who 
was descended from him in the fifth generation, slew 
him, they ill deserved the name and rights of fathers ; 
and none, but those who have renounced all hu- 
manity, virtue, and common sense, can give it to 
them or their successors. If therefore Noah and 
Shem had not so much as the shadow of regal 






GOVERNMENT. 371 

power, and the actions of Nimrod, Ninus, and others, 
who were kings in their times, shew they did not 
reign in the right of fathers, but were set up in a di- 
rect opposition to it, the titles of the first kings were 
not from paternity, nor consistent with it. 

Our author therefore, who should have proved 
every point, doth neither prove any one, nor assert 
that which is agreeable to divine or human story, as 
to matter of fact ; and as little conformable to com- 
mon sense. It does not only appear contrary to 
his general proposition, that all governments have 
not begun with the paternal power ; but we do not 
find that any ever did. They who, according to his 
rules, should have been lords of the whole earth, 
lived and died private men, whilst the wildest and 
most boisterous of their children commanded the 
greatest part of the then inhabited world, not ex- 
cepting even those countries where they spent and 
ended their days ; and instead of entering upon the 
government by the right of fathers, or managing it 
as fathers, they did, by the most outrageous injus- 
tice, usurp a violent domination over their brethren 
and fathers. 

It may easily be imagined what the right is, that 
could be thus acquired and transmitted to their suc- 
cessors. Nevertheless our author says, " all kings 
either are or ought to be reputed next heirs, &x.' r 
But why reputed, if they were not? How could 
any of the accursed race of Ham be reputed father 
of Noah or Shem. to whom he was to be a ser~ 



372 DISCOURSES ON 

vant? How could Nimrod and Ninus be reputed 
fathers of Ham, and of those whom they ought 
to have obeyed? Can reason oblige me to be- 
lieve that which I know to be false ? Can a lie, that 
is hateful to God and good men, not only be excus- 
ed, but enjoined, when (as he will perhaps say) it 
is for the king's service ? Can I serve two masters, 
or, without t*he most unpardonable injustice, repute 
him to be my father who is not my father ; and pay 
the obedience that is due to him who did beget and 
educate me, to one from whom I never received any 
good ? If this be so absurd, that no man dares affirm 
it in the person of any, it is as preposterous in 
relation to his heirs : for Nimrod the first king could 
be heir to no man as king, and could transmit to no 
man a right which he had not. If it was ridiculous 
and abominable to say, that he was father of Cush, 
Ham, Shem, and Noah, it is as ridiculous to say, 
he had the right of father, if he was not their father; 
or that his successor inherited it from him, if he 
never had it. If there be any way through this, it 
must have accrued to him by the extirpation of all 
his elders, and their races ; so as he who will assert, 
this pretended right to have been in the Babylonian 
kings, must assert, that Noah, Shem, Japheth, 
Ham, Cush, and all Nimrod's eldest brothers, with 
all their descendants, were utterly extirpated before 
he began to reign ; and all mankind to be descended 
from him. 

This must be, if Nimrod, as the scripture says, 
was the first that became mighty in the earth,; unless 



GOVERNMENT, 373 

men might be kings, without having more power 
than others ; for Cush, Ham, and Noah, were his 
elders and progenitors in the direct line ; and all the 
sons of Shem and Japheth, and their descendants in 
the collaterals, were to be preferred before him ; 
and he could have no right at all, that was not di- 
rectly contrary to those principles which, our author 
says, are grounded upon the eternal and indispensi- 
ble laws of God and nature. The like may be said 
of the seventy-two heads of colonies, which (fol- 
lowing, as I suppose, Sir Walter Raleigh) he says 
went out to people the earth, and whom he calls 
kings : for, according to the same rule, Noah, 
Shem, and Japheth, with their descendants, could 
not be of the number ; so that neither Nimrod, nor 
the others that established the kingdoms of the 
world, and from whence he thinks all the rest to be 
derived, could have any thing of justice in them, 
unless it were from a root altogether inconsistent 
with his principles. They are therefore false, or the 
establishments before mentioned could have no right. 
If they had none, they cannot be reputed to have 
any ; for no man can think that to be true, which 
he knows to be false : having none, they could 
transmit none to their heirs and successors. And 
if we are to believe, that all the kingdoms of the 
earth are established upon this paternal right; it 
must be proved, that all those, who in birth ought 
to have been preferred before Nimrod, and the 
seventy-two, were extirpated ; or that the first and 
true heir of Noah did afterwards abolish all these 
unjust usurpations ; and, making himself master of 



374 I DISCOURSES ON 

the whole, left it to his heirs, in whom it continues 
to this day. When this is clone, I will acknowledge 
the foundation to be well laid, and admit of all that 
can be rightly built upon it ; but if this fails, all 
fails : the poison of the root continues in the branches. 
If the right heir be not in possession, he is not the 
right who is in possession : if the true heir be known, 
he ought to be restored to his right : if he be not 
known, the right must perish : that cannot be said 
to belong to any man, if no man knows to whom it 
belongs, and can have no more effect than if it were 
not. This conclusion will continue immoveable, 
though the division into seventy-two kingdoms 
were allowed ; which cannot be without destroying 
the paternal power, or subjecting it to be subdivided 
into as many parcels as there are men, which de- 
stroys regality ; for the same thing may be required 
in every one of the distinct kingdoms, and others 
derived from them. We must know who was the 
true heir of Noah, that recovered all : how, when, 
and to whom he gave the several portions ; and that 
every one of them do continue in the possession of 
those, who by this prerogative of birth are raised 
above the rest of mankind ; and if they are not, it is 
an impious folly to repute them so, to the prejudice 
of those that are ; and if they do not appear to the 
prejudice of all mankind, who being equal, are 
thereby made subject to them. For as truth is the 
rule of justice ; there can be none, when he is re- 
puted superior to all who is certainly inferior to 

[_In this place, two pages are wanting in the 
original manuscript.^ 



GOVERNMENT. 375 

.... degenerated from that reason which distinguished 
men from beasts, Though it may be fit to use some 
ceremonies, before a man be admitted to practice 
physic, or set up a trade, it is his own skill that 
makes him a doctor, or an artificer ; and others do 
but declare it. An ass will not leave his stupidity, 
though he be covered with scarlet ; and he that is 
by nature a slave, will be so still, though a crown 
be put upon his head : and it is hard to imagine a 
more violent inversion of the laws of God and na- 
ture, than to raise him to the throne, whom nature 
intended for the chain ; or to make them slaves to 
slaves, whom God hath endowed with the virtues 
required in kings. Nothing can be more preposter- 
ous, than to impute to God the frantic domination 
which is often exercised by wicked, foolish and vile 
persons, over the wise, valiant, just, and good; or 
to subject the best to the rage of the worst. If 
there be any family therefore in the world, that can 
by the law of God and nature, distinct from the or- 
dinance of man, pretend to an hereditary right of 
dominion over any people, it must be one that never 
did, and never can produce any person that is not 
free from all the infirmities and vices that render him 
unable to exercise the sovereign power ; and is en- 
dowed with all the virtues required to that end ; or 
at least a promise from God, verified by experience ? 
that the next in blood shall ever be able and fit for 
that work. But since we do not know, that any 
such hath yet appeared in the world, we have no 
reason to believe, that there is, or ever was any 
such ; and consequently none upon whom God hath 



376 DISCOURSES ON 

conferred the rights that cannot be exercised with- 
out them. 

If there was no shadow of a paternal right in the 
institution of the kingdoms of Saul and David, there 
could be none in those that succeeded. Rehoboam 
could have no other than from Solomon : when he 
reigned over two tribes, and Jeroboam over ten, it 
is not possible, that both of them could be the next 
heir of their last common father Jacob ; and it is ab- 
surd to say, that ought to be reputed, which is im- 
possible : for our thoughts are ever to be guided by 
truth, or such an appearance of it, as doth persuade 
or convince us. 

The same title of father is yet more ridiculously 
or odiously applied to the succeeding kings. Baasha 
had no other title to the crown, than by killing Na- 
dab the son of Jeroboam, and destroying his family. 
Zimri purchased the same honour by the slaughter 
of Elah when he was drunk ; and dealing with the 
house of Baasha, as he had done with that of Jero- 
boam. Zimri burning himself, transferred the same 
to Omri, as a reward for bringing him to that ex- 
tremity. As Jehu was more fierce than these, he 
seems to have gained a more excellent recompence 
than any since Jeroboam, even a conditional prom- 
ise of a perpetual kingdom ; but falling from these 
glorious privileges, purchased by his zeal in killing 

two wicked kings, and above one hundred of their 
brethren, Shallum inherited them, by destroying 
Zachary, and all that remained of his race. This in 



GOVERNMENT. 377 

plain English, is no less than to say, that whosoever 
kills a king, and invades a crown, though the act 
and means of accomplishing it be never so detesta- 
ble, does thereby become father of his country, and 
heir of all the divine privileges annexed to that glo- 
rious inheritance. And though I cannot tell whether 
such a doctrine be more sottish, monstrous, or im- 
pious, I dare affirm, that if it were received, no king 
in the world could think himself safe in his throne for 
one day: they are already encompassed with many dan- 
gers; but lest pride, avarice, anibition, lust, rage, 
and all the vices that usually reign in the hearts of 
worldly men, should not be sufficient to invite them 
perpetually to disturb mankind, through the desire 
of gaining the power, riches, and splendor that 
accompany a crown, our author proposes to them 
the most sacred privileges, as a reward of the most 
execrable crimes. He that was stirred up only by 
the violence of his own nature, thought that a king- 
dom could never be bought at too dear a rate : 

" Pro regno velim 

" Patriam, penates, conjugem flammis dare : 
" Imperia precio quolibet constant bene." 

Senec. Theb. vers. lilt. 

But if the sacred character of God's anointed or 
vicegerent, and father of a country, were added to 
the other advantages that follow the highest fortunes ; 
the most modest and just men would be filled with 
fury, that they might attain to them. Nay, it may 
be, even the best would be the most forward in con- 
vol. i. 2 z 



378 DISCOURSES ON 

spiring against such as reigned : they who could not 
be tempted with external pleasures, would be most 
in love with divine privileges ; and since they should 
become the sacred ministers of God, if they suc- 
ceeded, and traitors or rogues only if they miscarried, 
their only care would be so to lay their designs, that 
they might be surely executed* This is a doctrine 
worthy of Filmer's invention, and Heylin's approba- 
tion; which, being well weighed, will shew to all 
good and just kings how far they are obliged to 
those, who, under pretence of advancing their au- 
thority, fill the minds of men with such notions as 
are so desperately pernicious to diem. 



SECTION XV, 



EXCELLED IN THE VIRTUES THAT ARE MOST 
BENEFICIAL TO CIVIL SOCIETIES. 

If the Israelites, whose lawgiver was God, had no 
king in the first institution of their government, it is 
no wonder that other nations should not think them- 
selves obliged to set up any : if they who came all 
of one stock, and knew their genealogies, when they 
did institute kings, had no regard to our author's 
chimerical right of inheritance ; nor were taught by 
God or his prophets to have any ; it is not strange, 



GOVERNMENT. 379 

that nations, who did not know their own original, 
and who, probably, if not certainly, eame of several 
stocks, never put themselves to the trouble of seeking 
one who by his birth deserved to be preferred be- 
fore others ; and various changes happening in all 
kingdoms (whereby in process of time the crowns 
were transported into divers families^ to which the 
right of inheritance could not without the utmost 
impiety and madness be imputed) such a fancy cer- 
tainly could only enter into the heads of fools ; and 
we know of none so foolish to have harboured it. 

The Grecians, amongst others who followed the 
light of reason, knew no other original title to the 
government of a nation than that wisdom, valour, 
and justice which was beneficial to the people. 
These qualities gave beginning to those govern- 
ments, which we call " heroum regna /" and the 
veneration paid to such as enjoyed them, proceeded 
from a grateful sense of the good received from 
them : they w r ere thought to be descended from the 
gods, who in virtue and beneficence surpassed other 
men. The same attended their descendants, till they 
came to abuse their power, and by their vices shewed 
themselves like to, or worse than others. Those 
nations did not seek the most ancient, but the most 
worthy ; and thought such only worthy to be pre- 
ferred before others, who could best perform their 
duty. The Spartans knew, that Hercules and 
Achilles were not their fathers ; for they were a 
nation before either of them were born ; but think- 
ing their children might be like to them in valour, 



380 DISCOURSES ON 

they brought them from Thebes and Epirus to be 
their kings. If our author be of another opinion, I 
desire to know, whether the Heraclidae, or the 
iEacidas were, or ought to be, reputed fathers of 
the Lacedemonians ; for if the one was, the other 
was not. 

The same method was followed in Italy ; and 
they who esteemed themselves aborigines, 

" Qui rupto robore nati, 

" Compositive luto, nullus habuere parentes." 

Juven. Sat. 6. 1. 13. 

could not set up one to govern them under the title 
of parent. They could pay no veneration to any 
man under the name of a common father, who 
thought they had none ; and they who esteemed 
themselves equal, could have no reason to prefer 
any one, unless he were distinguished from others 
by the virtues that were beneficial to all. This may 
be illustrated by matters of fact. Romulus and 
Remus, the sons of a nun, constuprated, as is 
probable, by a lusty soldier, who was said to be 
Mars, for their vigour and valour, were made heads 
of a gathered people. We know not that ever they 
had any children ; but we are sure they could not 
be fathers of the people that flocked to them from 
several places, nor in any manner be reputed heirs 
of him or them that were so ; for they never knew 
who was their own father ; and when their mother 
came to be discovered, they ought to have been 
subjects to Amulius, or Numitor, when they had 



GOVERNMENT. 331 

slain him. They could not be his heirs whilst he 
lived, and were not when he died : the government 
of the Latins continued at Alba, and Romulus 
reigned over those who joined with him in building 
Rome. The power not coming to him by inherit- 
ance, must have been gained by force, or conferred 
upon him by consent : it could not be acquired by 
force ; for one man could not force a multitude of 
fierce and valiant men, as they appear to have been. 
It must therefore have been by consent ; and when 
he aimed at more authority than they were willing to 
allow, they slew him. He being dead, they fetched 
Numa from among the Sabines : he was not their 
father, nor heir to their father, but a stranger ; not a 
conqueror, but an unarmed philosopher. Tullus 
Hostilius had no other title : Ancus Martius was 
no way related to such as had reigned. The first 
Tarquin was the son of a banished Corinthian. 
Servius Tullus came to Rome in the belly of his 
captive mother, and could inherit nothing but chains 
from his vanquished father. Tarquin* the proud, 
murdered him, and first took upon himself the title 
of king, " sine jussu populi." If this murder and 
usurpation be called a conquest, and thought to 
create a right, the effect will be but small : the 
conqueror was soon conquered, banished, and his 
sons slain, after which we hear no more of him, or 
his descendants. Whatsoever he gained from Ser- 
vius, or the people, was soon lost, and did accrue 
to those who conquered and ejected him ; and they 
might retain what was their own, or confer it upon 
* T. liv. L. i. c 49. 



o82 BISCOURSES ON 

one or more, in such manner and measure as best 
pleased themselves. If the regal power, which our 
author says was in the consuls, could be divided 
into two parts, limited to a year, and suffer such 
restrictions as the people pleased to lay upon it,, 
they might have divided it into as many parcels,, 
and put it into such form as best suited with their 
inclinations ; and the several magistracies which 
they did create for the exercise of the kingly, and 
all other powers, shews that they were to give ac- 
count to none but themselves. 

The Israelites, Spartans, Romans, and others, who 
thus framed their governments according to their 
own will, did it not by any peculiar privilege, but by 
a universal right conferred upon them by God and 
nature : they were made of no better clay than 
others : they had no right, that does not as well be- 
long to other nations ; that is to say, the constitution 
of every government is referred to those who are 
concerned in it, and no other has any thing to do 
with it. 

Yet if it be asserted, that the government of Rome 
was paternal, or they had none at all ; I desire to 
know, how they came to have six fathers of several 
families, whilst they lived under kings ; and two or 
more new ones every year afterwards ; or how they 
came to be so excellent in virtue and fortune, as to 
conquer the best part of the world, if they had no 
government. Hobbes indeed doth scurrilously de- 
ride Cicero, Plato and Aristotle, " aeterosqae Ro- 



GOVERNMENT. 383 

mancc 8C Greece anarchia fanfares." But it is 
strange that this anarchy, which he resembles to a 
chaos, full of darkness and confusion, that can have 
no strength or regular action, should overthrow all 
the monarchies that came within their reach, " if (as 
our author says) the best order, greatest strength, 
and most stability, be in them." It must therefore 
be confessed, that these governments are, in their 
various forms, rightly instituted by several nations, 
without any regard to inheritance ; or that these 
nations have had no governments and were more 
strong, virtuous and happy without government 
than under it, which is most absurd. 

But if governments arise from the consent of men, 
and are instituted by men according to their own in- 
clinations, they do therein seek their own good ; 
for the will is ever drawn by some real good, or the 
appearance of it. This is that which man seeks 
by all the regular or irregular motions of his mind* 
Reason and passion, virtue and vice, do herein con- 
cur, though they differ vastly in the objects in 
which each of them thinks this good to consist. A 
people therefore that sets up kings, dictators, con- 
suls, pretors, or emperors, does it not that they 
may be great, glorious, rich or happy, but that it 
may be well with themselves and their posterity. 
This is not accomplished simply by setting one, a 
few or more men in the administration of powers, 
but by placing the authority in those who may rightly 
perform their office. This is not every man's work : 
valour, integrity, wisdom, industry, experience, 



384 DISCOURSES ON 

and skill are required for the management of those 
military and civil affairs that necessarily fall under 
the care of the chief magistrates. He or they 
therefore may reasonably be advanced above their 
equals, who are most fit to perform the duties be- 
longing to their stations, in order to the public 
good, for which they were instituted. 

Marius, Sylla, Catalina, Julius, or Octavius Caesar, 
and all those who by force or fraud usurped a do- 
minion over their brethren, could have no title to 
this right ; much less could they become fathers of 
the people, f by using all the most wicked means that 
could well be imagined to destroy them ; and not 
being regularly chosen for their virtues, or the 
opinion of them, nor preferred on account of any 
prerogative that had been from the beginning an- 
nexed to their families, they could have no other 
right than occupation could confer upon them. If 
this can confer a right, there is an end of all disputes 
concerning the laws of God or man. If Julius and 
Octavius Caesar did successively become lords and 
fathers of their country, by slaughtering almost all 
the senate and such persons as were eminent for 
nobility and virtue, together with the major part of 
the people, it cannot be denied, that a thief,' who 
breaks into his neighbour's house and kills him, is 
master of his estate ; and may exact the same obe- 
dience from his children, that they render to their 
father. If this right could be transferred to Tibe- 
rius, either through the malice of Octavius or the 
fraud of his wife, a wet blanket laid over his face, 



GOVERNMENT. 385 

and a few corrupted soldiers, could invest Caligula 
with the same. A vile rascal, pulling Claudius out 
by the heels from behind the hangings where he had 
hid himself, could give it to him. A dish of mush- 
rooms well seasoned by the infamous strumpet his 
wife, and a potion prepared for Brittanicus by Lo- 
custa, could transfer it to her son, who was a stran- 
ger to his blood. Galba became heir to it, by driv- 
ing Nero to despair and death. Two common sol- 
diers, by exciting his guards to kill him, could give 
a just title to the empire of the world to Otho, who 
was thought to be the worst man in it. If a com- 
pany of villains in the German army, thinking it as 
fit for them as others, to create a father for mankind, 
could confer the dignity upon Vitellius ; and if Ves- 
pasian, causing him to be killed, and thrown into a 
jakes less impure than his life, did inherit all the 
glorious and sacred privileges belonging to that title ; 
it is in vain to inquire after any man's right to any 
thing. 

If there be such a thing as right and wrong to be 
' examined by men, and any rule set whereby the 
one may be distinguished from the other, these ex- 
travagancies can have no effect of right. Such as 
commit them, are not to be looked upon as fathers ; 
but as the most mortal enemies of their respective 
countries. No right is to be acknowledged in any, 
but such as is conferred upon them by those who 
have the right of conferring, and are concerned in 
the exercise of the power, upon such conditions as 

VOL. I. S A 



386 DISCOURSES ON 

best please themselves. No obedience can be due 
to him or them, who have not a right of commanding. 
This cannot reasonably be conferred upon any 
that are not esteemed willing and able rightly to 
excute it. This ability to perform the highest works 
that come within the reach of men ; and integrity 
of will not to be diverted from it by any temptation, 
or consideration of private advantages, comprehend- 
ing all that is most commendable in man ; we may 
easily see, that whensoever men act according to 
the law of their own nature, which is reason, they 
can have no other rule to direct them in advancing 
one above another, than the opinion of a man's vir- 
tue and ability, best to perform the duty incumbent 
upon him; that is, by all means to procure the 
good of the people committed to his charge. He 
is only fit to conduct a ship, who understands the 
art of a pilot : when we are sick, we seek the assist- 
ance of such as are best skilled in physic : the com- 
mand of an army is prudently conferred upon him 
that hath most industry, skill, experience, and 
valour : in like manner, he only can, according to 
the rules of nature, be advanced to the dignities of 
the world, who excels in the virtues required for 
the performance of the duties annexed to them ; for 
he only can answer the end of his institution. The 
law of every instituted power is, to accomplish the 
end of its institution, as creatures are to do the will 
of their Creator, and in deflecting from it, overthrow 
their own being. Magistrates are distinguished 
from other men by the power with which the law 
invests them for the public good : he that cannot or 



GOVERNMENT. 387 

will not procure that good, destro) T s his own being, 
and becomes like to other men. In matters of the 
greatest importance " detur digniori," is the voice 
of nature ; all her most sacred laws are perverted, 
if this be not observed in the disposition of the go- 
vernments of mankind : but all is neglected and 
violated, if they are not put into the hands of such 
as excel in all manner of virtues ; for they only are 
worthy of them, and they only can have a right who 
are worthy, because they only can perform the end 
for which they are instituted. This may seem 
strange to those who have their heads infected with 
Filmer's whimsies ; but to others so certainly ground- 
ed upon truth, that Bartholomew de las Casas,* 
Bishop of Chiapa, in a treatise written by him, and 
dedicated to the emperor Charles the 5th, concern- 
ing the Indies, makes it the foundation of all his 
discourse, that notwithstanding his grant of all 
those countries from the Pope, and his pretensions 
to conquest, he could have no right over any of 
those nations, unless he did in the first place, as the 
principal end, regard their good : " The reason," 
says he, " is, that regard is to be had to the princi- 

* La razon es porque siempre se ha de tener respeto al fin y 
causa final, por el qual, el tal supremo y universal sennor se 
tes pone, que es su bien y utilitad ; y a que no se le convierte 
el tal supremo sennorio in danno, pernicie y destruycion. Porque 
si assi fuesse, no ay que dudar, que non desde entonees in- 
clusivame te seria injusto, Tyrannico y iniquo al senorio, come 
mas se enderezasse al proprio interesse y provecho del sennor, 
que al bien y utilitad comun de los subditos ; lo qual de la razon 
natural y dc todas las leyes human as y ditinas es abhorrecido y 
abhorrescible. Bar. de las Casas r dester. de las Indias, pag. Ill* 



388 DISCOURSES ON 

pal end and cause for which a supreme or univer- 
sal lord is set over them, which is their good and 
profit, and not that it should turn to their destruc- 
tion and ruin ; for if that should be, there is no 
doubt but from thenceforward that power would be 
tyrannical and unjust, as tending more to the interest 
and profit of that lord, than to the public good and 
profit of the subjects ; which, according to natural 
reason, and the laws of God and man, is abhorred, 
and deserves to be abhorred." And in another 
place, speaking of the governors, who, abusing 
their power, brought many troubles and vexations 
upon the Indians, he says,* " they had rendered 
his majesty's government intolerable, and his yoke 
insupportable, tyrannical, and most justly abhor- 
red.' ' I do not alledge this through an opinion that 
a Spanish bishop is of more authority than another 
man ; but to shew, that these are common notions 
agreed in by all mankind ; and that the greatest mon- 
archs do neither refuse to hear them or to regulate 
themselves according to them, till they renounce 
common sense and degenerate into beasts. 

But if that government be unreasonable, and ab- 
horred by the laws of God and man, which is not in- 
stituted for the good of those that live under it ; and 
an empire, grounded upon the donation of the Pope, 
which amongst those of the Roman religion is of 
great importance, and an entire conquest of the peo- 
ple, with whom there had been no former compact, 

* El yugo y governacion de vuest a magestad importable, 
liramrico y degno dc todo abhorrecimento. Pag. 167. 



GOVERNMENT. 389 

do degenerate into a most unjust and detestable 
tyranny, so soon as the supreme lord begins to pre- 
fer his own interest or profit before the good of his 
subjects ; what shall we say of those who pretend to 
a right of dominion over free nations, as inseparably 
united to their persons, without distinction of age or 
sex, or the least consideration of their infirmities and 
vices ; as if they were not placed in the throne for 
the good of their people, but to enjoy the honours 
and pleasures that attend the highest fortune ? What 
name can be fit for those, who have no other title to 
the places they possess, than the most unjust and vi- 
olent usurpation, or being descended from those who 
for their virtues were, by the people's consent, duly 
advanced to the exercise of a legitimate power ; and 
having sworn to administer it, according to the con- 
ditions upon which it was given, for the good of those 
who gave it, turn all to their own pleasure and profit, 
without any care of the public ? These may be liable 
to hard censures ; but those who use them most 
gently, must confess, that such an extreme deviation 
from the end of their institution, annuls it ; and the 
wound thereby given to the natural and original 
rights of those nations cannot be cured, unless they 
resume the liberties, of which they have been de- 
prived, and return to the ancient custom of choosing 
those to be magistrates, who for their virtues best 
deserve to be preferred before their brethren, and 
are endowed with those qualities that best enable 
men to perform the great end of providing for the 
public safety. 



90 DISCOURSES ON 



SECTION XVI. 

COD, HAYING GIVEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE 
WORLD TO NO ONE MAN, NOR DECLARED HOW 
IT SHOULD BE DIVIDED, LEFT IT TO THE WILL 
OF MAN. 

Our author's next inquiry is, " What becomes 
of the right of fatherhood ' in case the crown should 
escheat for want of an heir ? Whether it doth not 
escheat to the people V His answer is, 'It is but the 
negligence or ignorance of the people, to lose the 
knowledge of the true heir,' he. And a little be- 
low, the power is not devolved to the multitude : 
no ; the kingly power escheats on independent heads 
of families : all such prime heads have power to con- 
sent in the uniting, or conferring their fatherly right 
of sovereign authority on whom they please ; and he 
that is so elected claims not his power as a donative 
from the people, but as being substituted by God, 
from whom he receives his royal charter of universal 
father," &c. 

In my opinion, before he had asked, what should 
be done in case the crown should escheat for want of 
an heir ? He ought to have proved, there had been a 
man in the world, who had the right in himself, and 
telling who he was, have shewed how it had been 
transmitted for some generations, that we might 
know where to seek his heir ; and before he accused 



GOVERNMENT. 391 

the multitude of ignorance or negligence, in not 
knowing this heir, he ought to have informed us, 
how it may be possible to know him, or what it ■ 
would avail us if we did know him : for it is in 
vain to know to whom a right belongs, that never 
was, and never can be executed. But we may go 
farther, and affirm, that as the universal right must 
have been in Noah and Shem (if in any) who never 
exercised it, we have reason to believe there never 
was any such thing ; and, having proved from scrip- 
ture and human history, that the first kingdoms were 
set up in a direct opposition to this right, by^Nimrod 
and others, he that should seek and find their heirs, 
would only find those, who, by a most accursed 
wickedness, had usurped and continued a dominion 
over their fathers, contrary to the laws of God and 
nature ; and we should neither be more wise, nor 
more happier than we are, though our author should 
furnish us with certain and authentic genealogies by 
which we might know the true heirs of Nimrod, and 
the seventy-two kings that went from Babylon, who, 
as he supposes, gave beginning to all the kingdoms 
of the earth. 

Moreover, if the right be universal, it must be in 
one ; for the universe being but one, the whole right 
of commanding it cannot at the same time be in 
many, and proceed from the ordinance of God, or of 
man. It cannot proceed from the ordinance of God ; 
for he doth nothing in vain : he never gave a right 
that could not be executed : no man can govern 
that which he does not so much as know : no man 



392 DISCOURSES ON 

did ever know all the world ; no man therefore did 
or could govern it : and none could be appointed by 
God to do that which is absolutely impossible to be 
done ; for it could not consist with his wisdom. 
We find this in ourselves. It were a shame for one 
of us poor, weak, short-sighted creatures, in the 
disposal of our affairs, to appoint such a method, as 
were utterly ineffectual for the preservation of our 
families, or destructive to them ; and the blasphemy 
of imputing to God such an ordinance, as would be 
a reproach to one of us, can suit only with the 
wicked and impudent fury of such as our author, 
who delights in monsters. This also shews us, that 
it cannot be from men ; one, or a few, may commit 
follies ; but mankind does not universally commit, 
and perpetually persist in any ; they cannot there- 
fore, by a general and permanent authority, enact 
that which is utterly absurd and impossible ; or if 
they do, they destroy their own nature, and can no 
longer deserve the name of reasonable creatures. 
There can be therefore no such man, and the folly 
of seeking him, or his heir that never was, may be 
left to the disciples of Filmer. 

The difficulties are as great, if it be said, the 
world might be divided into parcels, and we are to 
seek the heirs of the first possessors ; for besides 
that no man can be obliged to seek that which can- 
not be found (all men knowing, that " caliginosa 
node hcec premit Deus),"* and that the genealogies 

* Hor. od. 1. III. xxix. 30. 



GOVERNMENT. 393 

of mankind are so confused, that, unless possibly 
among Jews, we have reason to believe that there is 
not a man in the world who knows his own ori- 
ginal : it could be of no advantage to us, though 
we knew that of every one ; for the division would 
be of no value, unless it were at the first rightly 
made by him who had all authority in himself, 
(which does no where appear) and rightly deduced 
to him, who according to that division, claims a 
right to the parcel he enjoys : and I fear our author 
would terribly shake the crowns, in which* the na- 
tions of Europe are concerned, if they should be 
persuaded to search into the genealogies of their 
princes, and to judge of their rights according to 
the proofs they should give of titles rightly deduced 
by succession of blood from the seventy-two first 
kings, from whom our author fancies all the king- 
doms of the world to be derived. 

Besides, though this were done, it would be to 
no purpose ; for the seventy-two were not sent out 
by Noah ; nor was he, or his sons, of that number; 
but they went or were sent from Babylon, where 
Nimrod reigned, who, as has been already proved, 
neither had nor could have any right at all, but was 
a mighty hunter, even a proud and cruel tyrant, 
usurping a power to which he had no right, and 
which was perpetually exercised by him and his suc- 
cessors against God and his people ; from whence I 
may safely conclude, that no right can ever be de- 
rived ; and may justly presume, it will be denied 
by none who are of better morals, and of more 

VOL. I. 3 b 



394 DISCOURSES ON 

sound principles in matters of law and religion than 
Filmer and Heylin ; since it is no less absurd to 
deduce a right from him that had none, than to expect 
pure and wholesome waters from a filthy, polluted, 
and poisonous fountain. 

If it be pretended, that some other man since 
Noah had this universal right, it must either remain 
in one single person, as his right heir, or be divided. 
If in one, I desire to know who he is, and where 
we may find him, that the empire of the world may 
be delivered to him : but if he cannot be found, 
the business is at an end, for every man in the 
world may pretend himself to be the person ; and 
the infinite controversies arising thereupon can never 
be decided, unless either the genealogies of every one 
from Noah was extant and proved, or we had a 
word from heaven, with a sufficient testimony of his 
mission who announceth it. When this is done, it 
will be time to consider what kind of obedience is 
due to this wonderfully happy and glorious person. 
But whilst the first appears to be absolutely impos- 
sible, and we have no promise or reason to expect 
the other, the proposition is to be esteemed one of 
our author's empty whimsies, which cannot be re- 
ceived by mankind, unless they come all to be pos- 
sessed with an epidemical madness, which would 
cast them into that which Hobbes calls " bellum 
omnium contra omnes :" when every man's sword 
would be drawn against every man, and every man's 
against him, if God should so abandon the world 
to suffer them to fall into such misery. 



GOVERNMENT. 395 

If this pretended right be divided, it concerns us 
to know by whom, when, how, or to whom; for 
the division cannot be of any value, unless the right 
was originally in one ; that he did exercise this 
right in making the division ; that the parcels into 
which the world is divided are according to the alot- 
ment that was made ; and that the persons claiming 
them by virtue of it are the true heirs of those to 
whom they were first granted. Many other difficul- 
ties may be alledged no less inextricable than these ; 
but this seeming sufficient for the present, I shall not 
trouble myself with more, promising that, when 
they shall be removed, I will propose others, or, 
confessing my errors, yield up the cause. 

But if the dominion of the whole world cannot 
belong to any one man, and every one have an 
equal title to that which should give it ; or if it did 
belong to one, none did ever exercise it in govern- 
ing the whole, or dividing it ; or, if he did divide 
it, no man knows how, when, and to whom ; so 
that they who lay claim to any parcels can give no 
testimony of that division, nor shew any better title 
than other men derived from their first progenitor, 
to whom it is saioVto have been granted; and that 
we have neither a word, nor the promise of a word 
from God to decide the controversies arising there- 
upon ; nor any prophet giving testimony of his mis- 
sion that takes upon him to do it, the whole fabric 
of our author's patriarchal dominion falls to the 
ground; and they who propose these doctrines, 
which, if they were received, would be the root of 



396 DISCOURSES ON 

perpetual and irreconcilable hatred in every man 
against every man, can be accounted no less than 
ministers of the devil, though they want the abili- 
ties he has sometimes infused into those who have 
been employed on the like occasions. And we may 
justly conclude, that God having never given the 
whole world to be governed by one man ; nor pre- 
scribed any rule for the division of it ; nor declared 
where the right of dividing or subdividing that 
which every man has, should terminate ; we may 
safely affirm, that the whole of it is forever left to 
the will and discretion of man : we may enter into, 
form, and continue in greater or lesser societies, as 
best pleases ourselves : the right of paternity as to 
dominion is at an end ; and no more remains, but 
the love, veneration and obedience, which proceed- 
ing from a due sense of the benefits of birth and 
education, have their root in gratitude, and are 
esteemed sacred and inviolable by all that are sober 
and virtuous. And as it is impossible to transfer 
these benefits by inheritance, so it is impossible to 
transfer the rights arising from them. No man can 
be my father but he that did beget me ; and it is as 
absurd to say I owe that duty to one who is not my 
father, which I owe to my father, as to say, he did 
beget me, who did not beget me ; for the obligation 
that arises from benefits can only be to him that con- 
ferred them. It is in vain to say the same is due to 
his heir ; for that can take place only when he has 
but one, which in this case signifies nothing ; for if 
I, being the only son of my father, inherit his right, 
and have the same power over my children as he 



GOVERNMENT. 397 

had over me ; if I had one hundred brothers, they 
must all inherit the same ; and the law of England, 
which acknowledges one only heir, is not gene- 
ral, but municipal ; and is so far from being general, 
as the precept of God and nature, that I doubt 
whether it was ever known or used in any nation 
in the world beyond our island. The words of 
the apostle, " if we are children, we are there- 
fore heirs and co-heirs with Christ,' ' are the voice 
of God and nature ; and as the universal law 
of God and nature is always the same, every one of 
us who have children have the same right over them 
as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had over theirs ; and 
that right which was not devolved to any one of 
them, but inherited by them all (I mean the right 
of father as father, not the peculiar promises which 
were not according to the law of nature, but the 
election of grace) is also inherited by every one of 
us, and ours, that is, by all mankind. But if that 
which could be inherited was inherited by all, and it 
be impossible that a right of dominion over all can 
be due to every one, then all that is or can be inher- 
ited by every one is that exemption from the domin- 
ion of another, which we call liberty, and is the gift 
of God and nature. 



598 DISCOURSES ON 



SECTION XVII. 

IF A RIGHT OF DOMINION WERE ESTEEMED 
HEREDITARY ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF 
NATURE, A MULTITUDE OF DESTRUCTIVE 
AND INEXTRICABLE CONTROVERSIES WOULD 
THEREUPON ARISE. 

There being no such thing therefore, according 
to the law of nature, as an hereditary right to the do- 
minion of the world, or any part of it ; nor one man 
that can derive to himself a title from the first fathers 
of mankind, by which he can rightly pretend to be 
preferred before others to that command, or a part 
Of it ; and none can be derived from Nimrod, or 
other usurpers, who had none in themselves ; we 
may justly spare our pains of seeking farther into 
that matter. But as things of the highest importance 
can never be too fully explained; it may not be amiss 
to observe, that if mankind could be brought to be- 
lieve, that such a right of dominion were by the law 
of God and nature hereditary, a great number of the 
most destructive and inextricable controversies must 
thereupon arise, which the wisdom and goodness of 
God can never enjoin, and nature, which is reason, 
can never intend ; but at present I shall only men- 
tion two, from whence others must perpetually 
spring. First, if there be such a law, no human 
constitution can alter it : no length of time can be a 
defence against it : all governments that are not con- 



COVERNMENT. 399 



formable to it are vicious and void even in their root, 
and must be so forever : that which is originally un- 
just may be justly overthrown. We do not know 
of any (at least in that part of the world in which we 
are most concerned) that is established, or exercised 
with an absolute power, as by the authors of those 
opinions is esteemed inseparable from it : many, as 
the empire, and other states are directly contrary ; 
and on that account can have no justice in them. It 
being certain, therefore, that he or they, who exer- 
cise those governments, have no right ; that there is 
a man to whom it doth belong, and no man knowing 
who he is, there is no one man who has not as good 
a title to it as any other ; there is not therefore one 
who hath not a right, as well as any, to overthrow 
that which hath none at all. He that hath no part in 
the government may destroy it, as well as he that has 
the greatest ; for he neither has that which God or- 
dained he should have, nor can shew a title to that 
which he enjoys from that original prerogative of 
birth, from whence it can only be derived. 

If it be said, that some governments are arbitrary, 
as they ought to be, and France, Turkey, and the 
like be alledged as instances, the matter is not mend- 
ed : for we do not only know when those, who de- 
serve to be regarded by us, were not absolute, and 
how they came to be so ; but also, that those very 
families which are now in possession, are not of a 
very long continuance, had no more title to the origi- 
nal right we speak of than any other men, and con- 
sequently can have none to this day. And though 



400 DISCOURSES ON 

we cannot perhaps say, that the governments of the 
barbarous eastern nations were ever other than they 
are ; yet the known original of them deprives them 
of all pretence to the patriarchal inheritance, and they 
may be as justly as any other, deprived of the power 
to which they have no title. 

In the second place, though all men's genealogies 
were extant and fully verified, and it were allowed, 
that the dominion of the world, or every part of it, 
did belong to the right heir of the first progenitor, 
or any other to whom the first did rightly assign the 
parcel, which is under question : yet it were impos- 
sible for us to know who should be esteemed the 
true heir, or according to what rule he should be 
judged so to be : for God hath not by a precise 
word determined it, and men cannot agree about it, 
as appears by the various laws and customs of several 
nations, disposing severally of hereditary dominions. 

It is a folly to say, they ought to go to the next 
in blood ; for it is not known who is that next. 
Some give the preference to him, who amongst 
many competitors is the fewest degrees removed 
from their common progenitor who first obtained 
the crown : others look only upon the last that pos- 
sessed it. Some admit of representation, by which 
means the grandchild of a king by his eldest son is 
preferred before his second son, he being said to 
represent his dead father, who was the eldest: 
others exclude these, and advance the younger son, 
who is nearer by one degree to the common progen- 



GOVERNMENT. 401 

itor that last enjoyed the crown than the grandchild. 
According to the first rule, Richard the 2nd was 
advanced to the crown of England, as son of the 
eldest son of Edward the 3d, before his uncles, who 
by one degree were nearer to the last possessor : 
and in pursuance of the second, Sancha, surnamed 
the brave, second son of Alphonso the wise king of 
Castile, was preferred before Alphonso son of Fer- 
dinand his eldest brother, according to the law of 
thanestry, which was in force in Spain ever since we 
have had any knowledge of that country, as appears 
by the contest between Corbis and Orsua, decided 
by combat before Scipio Africanus ; continued in 
full force as long as the kingdom of the Goths lasted ; 
^tnd was ever highly valued, till the house of Austria 
got possession of that country, and introduced laws 
and customs formerly unknown to the inhabitants. 

The histories of all nations furnish us with in- 
numerable examples of both sorts ; and whosoever 
takes upon him to determine which side is in the 
right, ought to shew by what authority he under- 
takes to be the judge of mankind, and how the in- 
finite breaches thereby made upon the rights of the 
governing families shall be cured, without the over- 
throw of those that he shall condemn, and of the 
nations w T here such laws have been in force as he 
dislikes : and till that be done, in my opinion, no 
place will afford a better lodging for him that shall 
impudently assume such a power, than the new 
buildings in Moorfields. 

vol. i. 3 c 



402 DISCOURSES ON 

. It is no less hard to decide, whether this next 
heir is to be sought in the male line only, or whe- 
ther females also be admitted. If we follow the 
first as the law of God and nature, the title of our 
English kings is wholly abolished ; for not one 
of them, since Henry the 1st, has had the least pre- 
tence to an inheritance by the masculine line ; and 
if it were necessary, we have enough to say of those 
that were before them. 

If it be said that the same right belongs to fe- 
males, it ought to be proved that women are as fit 
as men to perform the office of a king ; that is, as 
the Israelites said to Samuel, to go in and out be- 
fore us, to judge us, and to fight our battles ; for it 
were an impious folly to say, that God had ordained 
those for the offices on which the good of mankind 
so much depends, who by nature are unable to per- 
form the duties of them. If on the other side, the 
sweetness, gentleness, delicacy, and tenderness of 
the sex, render them so unfit for manly exercises, 
that they are accounted utterly repugnant to, and in- 
consistent with, that modesty which does so eminently 
shine in all those that are good amongst them ; that 
law of nature which should advance them to the go- 
vernment of men, would overthrow its own work, 
and make those to be the heads of nations, which 
cannot be the heads of private families ; for, as the 
• apostle says, " the woman is not the head of the 
man, but the man is the head of the woman." This 
were no less than to oblige mankind to lay aside the 



GOVERNMENT. 403 

name of reasonable creature : for if reason be his 
nature, it cannot enjoin that which is contrary to 
itself; if it be not, the definition " homo est animal 
rationale," is false, and ought no longer to be as- 
sumed. 

If any man thinks these arguments to be mistaken 
or misapplied, I desire him to inquire of the French 
nation, on what account they have always excluded 
females, and such as descended from them ? How 
comes the house of Bourbon to be advanced to the 
throne before a great number of families that come 
from the daughters of the house of Valois ? Or 
what title those could have before the daughters of 
the other lines, descended from Hugh Capet, Pepin> 
Meroveus or Pharamond ? I know not how such 
questions would be received ; but I am inclined to 
think, that the wickedness and folly of those"* who 
should thereby endeavour to overthrow the most 
ancient and most venerated constitutions of the great- 
est nations, and by that means to involve them in the 
most inextricable difficulties, would be requited 
only with stones. 

It cannot be denied, that the most valiant, wise, 
learned, and best polished nations, have always fol- 
lowed the same rule, though the * weak and barba- 
rous acted otherwise ; and no man ever heard of a 
queen, or a man deriving his title from a female 

* Reginarumque sub armis 

Barberies pars magna jacet Lucan. Phars. 



404 DISCOURSES ON 

among the ancient civilized nations : but if this be 
not enough, the law of God, that wholly omits fe- 
males, is sufficient to shew, that nature, which is 
his handmaid, cannot advance them. When God 
describes who should be the king of his people* (if 
they would have one) and how he should govern, 
no mention is made of daughters. The Israelites 
offered the kingdom to Gideon, and to his sons : 
God promised, and gave it to Saul, David, Jerobo - 
ham, Jehu, and their sons. When all of them, 
save David, by their crimes, fell from the kingdom, 
the males only were extirpated, and the females, 
who had no part in the promises, did not fall under 
the penalties, or the vengeance that was executed 
upon those families : and we do not, in the word of 
God, or in the history of the Jews, hear of any 
feminine reign, except that which was usurped by 
Athaliah ; nor that any consideration was had of their 
descendants in relation to the kingdom : which is 
enough to shew that it is not according to the law of 
God, nor to the law of nature, which cannot differ 
from it. So that females, or such as derive their 
right by inheritance from females, must have it from 
some other law, or they can have none at all. 

But though this question were authentically de- 
cided and concluded, that females might or might 
not succeed, we should not be at the end of our con- 
tests ; for if they were excluded, it would not from 
thence follow, as in France, that their descendants 

* DeuU xvii* 



GOVERNMENT. 405 

should be so also ; for the privilege which is denied 
to them, because they cannot, without receding from 
the modesty and gentleness of the sex, take upon 
them to execute all the duties required, may be 
transferred to their children, as Henry the 2nd, and 
Henry the 7th, were admitted, though their mothers 
were rejected. 

If it be said that every nation ought in this to fol- 
low their own constitutions, we are at an end of our 
controversies ; for they ought not to be followed, 
unless they are rightly made ; they cannot be rightly 
made, if they are contrary to the universal law of God 
and nature. If there be a general rule, it is impossi- 
ble but some of them, being directly contrary to 
each other, must be contrary to it. If therefore all 
of them are to be followed, there can be no general 
law given to all ; but every people is by God and 
nature left to the liberty of regulating these matters 
relating to themselves according to their own pru- 
dence or convenience : and this seems to be so cer- 
tainly true, that whosoever does, as our author, pro- 
pose doctrines to the contrary, must either be thought 
rashly to utter that which he does not understand, or 
maliciously to cast balls of division among all na- 
tions, whereby every man's sword would be drawn 
against every man, to the total subversion of all order 
and government. 



406 DISCOURSES ON 



SECTION XVIII. 

KINGS CANNOT CONFER THE RIGHT OF FATHER 
UPON PRINCES, NOR PRINCES UPON KINGS. 

Lest what has been said before by our author 
should not be sufficient to accomplish his design of 
bringing confusion upon mankind, and some may 
yet lie still for want of knowing at whose command 
he shall cut his brother's throat, if he has not power 
or courage to set up a title for himself, he has a new 
project that would certainly do his work, if it were 
received. Not content with the absurdities and un- 
truths already uttered in giving the incommunicable 
right of fathers, not only to those who, as is manifestly 
testified by sacred and profane histories, did usurp 
a power over their fathers, or such as owed no man- 
ner of obedience to them ; and justifying those 
usurpations, which are most odious to God, and all 
good men, he now fancies a kingdom so gotten may 
escheat for want of an heir ; whereas there is no need 
of seeking any, if usurpation can confer a right; and 
that he who gets the power into his hands, ought to 
be reputed the right heir of the first progenitor ; for 
such a one will be seldom wanting, if violence and 
fraud be justified by the command of God, and na- 
tions stand obliged to render obedience, till a stronger 
or more successful villain throws him from the throne 
he had invaded. But if it should come to pass that 
no man would step into the vacant place, he has a 



GOVERNMENT. 407 

new way of depriving the people of their right to 
provide for the government of themselves. "Be- 
cause," says he, " the dependency of ancient families 
is oft obscure, and worn out of knowledge ; there- 
fore the wisdom of all, or most princes, hath thought 
fit many times to adopt those for heads of families, 
and princes of provinces, whose merits, abilities, or 
fortunes, have ennobled them, and made them fit and 
capable of such royal favours : all such prime heads 
and fathers have power to consent to the uniting and 
conferring of their fatherly right and sovereignty on 
whom they please," &x. 

I may justly ask, how any one or more families 
come to be esteemed more ancient than others, if all 
are descended from one common father, as the scrip- 
tures testify ; or to what purpose it were to inquire 
what families were the most ancient, if there were 
any such, when the youngest and most mean by 
usurpation gets an absolute right of dominion over 
the eldest, though his own progenitors, as Nimrod 
did ; but I may certainly conclude, that whatever 
the right be that belongs to those ancient families, it 
is inherent in them, and cannot be conferred on any 
other by any human power ; for it proceeds from na- 
ture only. The duty I owe to my father does not 
arise from an usurped or delegated power, but from 
my birth derived from him ; and it is as impossible 
for any man to usurp or receive by the grant of 
another the right of a father over me, as for him to 
become, or pretend to be made my father by another 



408 DISCOURSES ON 

who did not beget me. But if he say true, this right 
of father does not arise from nature ; nor the obedi- 
ence that I owe to him that begot me, from the ben- 
efits which I have received, but is merely an artificial 
thing, depending upon the will of another : and that 
we may be sure there can be no error in this, our 
author attributes it to the wisdom of princes. But 
before this comes to be authentic, we must at the 
least be sure that all princes have this great and pro- 
found wisdom, which our author acknowledges to 
be in them, and which is certainly necessary for the 
doing of such great things, if they were referred to 
them. They seem to us to be born like other men, 
and to be generally no wiser than other men. We 
are not obliged to believe that Nebuchadnezzar was 
wise till God had given him the heart of a man, or 
that his grandson Belshazzar, who being laid in the 
balance was found too light, had any such profound 
wisdom. Ahasuerus shewed it not, in appointing 
all the people of God to be slain, upon a lie told 
him by a rascal ; and the matter was not very much 
mended, when, being informed of the truth, he 
gave them leave to kill as many of their enemies as 
they pleased. The hardness of Pharaoh's heart, 
and the overthrow thereby brought upon himself 
and people, does not argue so profound a judgment 
as our author presumes every prince must have : 
and it is not probable that Samuel would have told 
Saul, " he had done foolishly," if kings had always 
been so exceeding wise : nay, if wisdom had been 
annexed to the character', Solomon might have 



GOVERNMENT. 409 

spared the pains of asking it from God, and Reho- 
boam must have had it.* Not to multiply examples 
out of scripture, it is believed, that Xerxes had not 
inflicted stripes upon the sea for breaking his navy 
in pieces, if he had been so very wise. Caligula 
for the same reason might have saved the labour of 
making love to the moon, or have chosen a fitter 
subject to advance to the consulate than his horse 
Incitatus : f Nero had not endeavoured to make a 
woman of a man nor married a man as a woman. 
Many other examples might be alledged to shew, 
that kings are not always wise : and not only the 
Roman satirist, who says, " Quicqidd delirant 
reges," J &c. shews that he did not believe them 
to be generally wiser than other men ; but Solomon 
himself judges them to be as liable to infirmities, 
when he prefers a wise child before an old and foolish 
king. If therefore the strength of our author's 
argument lies in the certainty of the wisdom of 
kings, it can be of no value, till he proves it to be 
more universal in them than history or experience 
will permit us to believe. Nay, 1 if there be truth 
or wisdom in the scripture, which frequently re- 
presents the wicked man as a fool, we cannot think 
that all kings are wise, unless it be proved that 
none of them have been wicked ; and when this is 
performed by Filmer's disciples, I shall confess my 
error. 

* Herod. 1. vii. c. 25. f Sueton. vit. Cal. c. 22, et 55. 
\ Horat. Epist. 1. I. ii. 14. 

VOL. I. 3d 



410 DISCOURSES ON 

Men give testimony of their wisdom, when they 
undertake that which they ought to do, and rightly 
perform that which they undertake ; both which 
points do utterly fail in the subject of our discourse. 
We have often heard of such as have adopted those 
to be their sons who were not so, and some civil 
laws approve it. This signifies no more, than that 
such a man, either through affection to one who is 
not his son, or to his parents, or for some other 
reason, takes him into his family, and shews kind- 
ness to him, as to his son ; but the adoption of 
fathers is a whimsical piece of nonsense. If this be 
capable of an aggravation, I think none can be 
greater than not to leave it to my own discretion, 
who, having no lather, may resolve to pay the duty 
I owed to my father to one who may have shewed 
kindness to me ; but for another to impose a father 
upon a man, or a people composed of fathers, or 
such as have fathers, whereby they should be de- 
prived of that natural honour and right, which he 
makes the foundation of his discourse, is the utmost 
of all absurdities. If any prince, therefore, have 
ever undertaken to appoint fathers of his people, he 
cannot be accounted a man of profound wisdom, 
but a fool, or a madman ; and his acts can be of no 
value. But if the thing were consonant to nature, 
and referred to the will of princes (which I absolutely 
deny) the frequent extravagancies committed by 
them in the elevation of their favourites shew, that 
they intend not to make them fathers of the people,, 
or know not what they do when they do it. 



GOVERNMENT. 411 

To choose or institute a father is nonsense in the 
very term ; but if any were to be chosen to perform 
the office of fathers to such as have none, and arc 
not of age to provide for themselves, as men do 
tutors or guardians for orphans, none could be capa- 
ble of being elected, but such as in kindness to the 
person they were to take under their care y did most 
resemble his true father, and had the virtues and 
abilities required rightly to provide for his good. If 
this fails, all right ceases ; and such a corruption is 
introduced as we saw in our court of wards, which 
the nation could not bear, when the institution was 
perverted, and the king, who ought to have taken a 
tender care of the wards and their estates, delivered 
them as a prey to those whom he favoured. 

Our author ridiculously attributes the title and 
authority of father to the word prince ; for it hath 
none in it, and signifies no more than a man who in 
some kind is more eminent than the vulgar. In this 
sense Mutius Scsevola told Porsenna, that " three 
hundred princes of the Roman youth had conspired 
against him ;" # by which he could not mean, that 
three hundred fathers of the Roman youth, but three 
hundred Roman young men had conspired: and 
they could not be fathers of the city, unless they 
had been fathers of their own fathers* " Princeps 
senatus" was understood in the same sense ; and 
T. Sempius the censor, choosing Q. Fabius Maxi- 
mus to that honour, gave for a reason, " se lecturum 

* Trecenti Romans juventutis principes. T. Liv. 1. ii. c« 12* 



412 DISCOURSES ON 

2. Fabium Maximum , quern turn principem Rom- 
ance civitatis esse, vel Annihle judice, dicturus 
esset;" * which could not be understood that Han- 
nibal thought him to be the father or lord of the city, 
for he knew he was not ; but the man, who for 
wisdom and valour was the most eminent in it. 

The like are, and ought to be, the princes of 
every nation ; and though something of honour may 
justly be attributed to the descendants of such as 
have done great services to their country, yet they 
who degenerate from them cannot be esteemed 
princes ; much less can such honours or rights be 
conferred upon court-creatures or favourites. Tibe- 
rius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, and others, 
could advance Macro, Pallas, Narcissus, Tigelli- 
nus, Vinnius, Laco, and the like, to the highest 
degrees of riches and power ; but they still continued 
to be villains, and so they died. 

No wise or good man ever thought otherwise of 
those who through the folly of princes have been ad- 
vanced to the highest places in several countries. 
The madness of attributing to them a paternal power, 
seems to have been peculiarly reserved to complete the 
infamy of our author ; for he only could acknowledge 
a co-optitious father, or give to another man the 
power of choosing him. I confess that a man in 
his infancy may have been exposed, like Moses, Cy- 
rus, Oedipus, Romulus : he may have been taken in 

* T> Liv. 1. xxvii. c. 1 1. 



GOVERNMENT, 413 

war ; or by the charity of some good person saved 
from the teeth of wild beasts, or from the sword by 
which his parents fell, and may have been educated 
with that care which fathers usually have of their 
children : it is reasonable, that such a one in the 
whole course of his life should pay that veneration 
and obedience to him who gave him as it were a 
second birth, which was due to his natural father ; 
and this, though improperly, may be called an adop- 
tion. But to think that any man can assume it to 
himself, or confer it upon another ; and thereby ar- 
rogate to himself the service and obedience which 
by the most tender and sacred laws of nature we 
owe to those from whom we receive birth and edu- 
cation, is the most preposterous folly that hitherto 
has ever entered into the heart of man. 

Our author nevertheless is not ashamed of it, and 
gives reasons no way unsuitable to the proposition. 
" Men are," says he, " adopted fathers of provinces 
for their abilities, merits, or fortunes." But these 
abilities can simply deserve nothing ; for if they are 
ill employed, they are the worst of vices, and the 
most powerful instruments of mischief. Merits in 
regard of another, are nothing, unless they be to him ; 
and he alone can merit from me the respect due to a 
father, who hath conferred benefits upon me, in some 
measure proportionable to those which we usually re- 
ceive from our fathers : and the world may judge, 
whether all the court-ministers and favourites that 
we have known, do upon this account deserve to be 



414 DISCOURSES ON 

esteemed fathers of nations. But to allow this on 
account of their fortunes, is, if possible, more extrav- 
agant than any thing that hath been yet uttered. By 
this account Mazarin must have been father of the 
French nation : the same right was inherited by his 
chaste niece, and remained in her, till she and her 
silly husband dissipated the treasures which her un - 
cle had torn from the bowels of that people. The 
partizans may generally claim the same right over the 
provinces they have pillaged : old Audley, Dog 
Smith, Bishop Duppa, Brownloe, Child, Dash wood, 
Fox, &c. are to be esteemed fathers of the people of 
England. This doctrine is perfectly canonical, if 
Filmer and Heylin were good divines : and legal, if 
they judged more rightly touching matters of law* 
But if it be absurd and detestable, they are to be re- 
puted men, who, by attributing the highest honours 
to the vilest wretches of the world, for what they had 
gained by the most abominable means, endeavour to 
increase those vices which are already come to such 
a height that they can by no other way be brought 
to a greater. Daily experience too plainly shews, 
with what rage avarice usually fills the hearts of men. 
There are not many destructive villanies committed 
in the world, that do not proceed from it. In this 
respect it is called " idolatry," and " the root of all 
evil." Solomon warns us to beware of such as make 
haste to grow rich, and says, they shall not be inno- 
cent. But it is no matter what the prophets, the 
apostles, or the wisest men, say of riches, and the 
ways of gaining them ; for our author tells us, that 



GOVERNMENT. 415 

men of the greatest fortunes, without examining how 
they came to them, or what use they make of them, 
deserve to be made fathers of provinces. 

But this is not his only quarrel with all that is just 
and good ; his whole book goes directly against the 
letter and spirit of the scripture. The work of all 
those, whom God in several ages has raised up to 
announce his word, was to abate the lusts and pas- 
sions that arise in the hearts of men ; to shew the 
vanity of worldly enjoyments, with the dangers that 
accompany riches and honours, and to raise our 
hearts to the love of those treasures that perish not. 
Honest and wise men, following the light of nature, 
have in some measure imitated this. Such as lived 
private lives, as Plato, Socrates, Epictetus, and 
others, made it their business to abate men's lusts by 
shewing the folly of seeking vain honours, useless 
riches, or unsatisfying pleasures ; and those who 
were like to them, if they were raised to supreme 
magistracies, have endeavoured by the severest pun- 
ishments to restrain men from committing the 
crimes by which riches are most commonly gained. 
But Filmer and Heylin lead us into a new way : if 
they deserve credit, whosoever would become su- 
preme lord and father of his country, absolute, 
sacred, and inviolable, is only to kill him that is in 
the head of government: usurpation confers an 
equal right with election or inheritance : we are to 
look upon the power, not the ways by which it is 
obtained : possession only is to be regarded ; and 
men must venerate the present power, as set up by 



416 DISCOURSES ON 

God, though gained by violence, treachery, or 
poison : children must not impose laws upon, nor 
examine the actions of their father. Those who are 
a little more modest, and would content themselves 
with the honour of being fathers and lords only of 
provinces, if they get riches by the favour of the 
king, or the favour of the king by riches, may re- 
ceive that honour from him : the lord paramount 
may make them peculiar lords of each province as 
sacred to himself; and by that means every man 
shall have an immediate and subaltern father. This 
would be a spur to excite even the most sleeping 
lusts ; and a poison that would fill the gentlest spirits 
with the most violent furies. If men should believe 
this, there would hardly be found one of whom it 
might not be said, " Hac spe, minanti fulmen, oc- 
curret Jovi." * No more is required to fill the 
world with fire and blood, than the reception of 
these precepts : no man can look upon that as a 
wickedness, which shall render him sacred; nor 
fear to attempt that which shall make him God's 
vicegerent. And I doubt, whether the wickedness 
of filling men's heads with such notions was ever 
equalled, unless by him who said, " Ye shall not 
die, but be as gods." 

But since our author is pleased to teach us these 
strange things, I wish he would also have told us, 
how many men in every nation ought to be looked 
upon as adopted fathers : what proportion of riches, 

* Senec. Theb. 



GOVERNMENT. 417 

ability, or merit, is naturally or divinely required 
to make them capable of this sublime character : 
whether the right of this chimerical father does not 
destroy that of the natural ; or whether both con- 
tinue in force, and men thereby stand obliged, in 
despite of what Christ said, to serve two masters. 
For if the right of my artificial father arise from any 
act of the king in favour of his riches, abilities, or 
merit, I ought to know whether he is to excel in 
all, or any one of these points; how far, and which 
of them gives the preference ; since it is impossible 
for me to determine whether my father, who may be 
wise, though not rich, is thereby divested of his 
right, and it comes to be transferred to another 
who may be rich, though not wise, nor of any per- 
sonal merit at all, till that point be decided ; or so 
much as to guess, when I am emancipated from the 
duty I owe to him, by whom I was begotten and 
educated, unless I know whether he be fallen from 
his right, through want of merit, wisdom, or estate; 
and that can never be, till it be determined, that he 
hath forfeited his right, by being defective in all or 
any of the three ; and what proportion of merit, 
wisdom, or estate, is required in him, for the enjoy- 
ment of his right, or in another that w T ould acquire 
it : for no man can succeed to the right of another, 
unless the first possessor be rightly deprived of it ; 
and it cannot belong to them both, because common 
sense universally teaches, that two distinct persons 
cannot, at the same time, and in the same degree, 
have an equal right to the same individual thing. 
vol. i. 3 E 



418 DISCOURSES ON 

The right of father cannot therefore be conferred 
upon princes by kings, but must forever follow the 
rule of nature. The character of a father is indeli- 
ble, and incommunicable : the duty of children 
arising from benefits received is perpetual, because 
they can never not have received them ; and can be 
due only to him from whom they are received. For 
these reasons, we see, that such as our author calls 
princes, cannot confer it upon a king; for they can- 
not give what they have not in themselves : they 
who have nothing, can give nothing : they who are 
only supposititious, cannot make another to be real ; 
and the whimsy of kings making princes to be 
fathers, and princes conferring that right on kings, 
comes to nothing. 



SECTION XIX. 



ALL JUST MAGESTERIAL POWER IS FROM THE 
PEOPLE. 

Having proved that the right of a father proceeds 
from the generation and education of his children ; 
that no man can have that right over those, whom 
he hath not begotten and educated ; that every man 
hath it over those, who owe their birth and educa- 
tion to him ; that all the sons of Noah, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, and others, did equally inherit it ; that, 



GOVERNMENT. 419 

by the same reason, it doth forever belong to every 
man that begets children ; it plainly appears, that no 
father can have a right over others, unless it be by 
them granted to him, and that he receive his right 
from those who granted it. But our author, with 
an admirable sagacity peculiar to himself, discovers, 
and with equal confidence tells us, that that which 
is from the people, or the chief heads of them, is 
not from the people : " he that is so elected,' ' says 
he, " claims not his right from the people as a dona- 
tive, but from God." That is, if I mistake it not, 
Romulus was not made king of the Romans by that 
people, but by God : those men being newly 
gathered together, had two fathers, though neither 
of them had any children ; and no man knew who 
was their father, nor which of them was the elder : 
but Romulus, by the slaughter of his brother, de- 
cided all questions, and purchased to himself a royal 
charter from God ; and the act of the people which 
conferred the power on him, was the act of God. 
We had formerly learnt, that whatsoever was done 
by monarchs was to be imputed to God ; and that 
whosoever murdered the father of a people, acquired 
the same right to himself: but now it seems, that 
nations also have the same privilege, and that God 
doth what they do. Now I understand why k was 
said of old, " Vox populi est vox Dei :" but if it 
was so in regard of Romulus, the same must be 
confessed of Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, 
Tarquinius Priscus, and Servius Tullus ; who be- 
ing all strangers to each other, and most of them 
aliens also, were successively advanced by the same 



420 DISCOURSES ON 

people, without any respect to the children, rela- 
tions, or heirs of their predecessors. And I cannot 
comprehend, why the act of the same people should 
not have the same virtue, and be equally attributed 
to God, when they gave the same or more power to 
consuls, military tribunes, decemviri, or dictators ; 
or why the same divine character should not be in 
the same manner conferred upon any magistracies, 
that by any people have been, are, or shall be at any 
time erected for the same ends. 

Upon the same grounds we may conclude, that no 
privilege is peculiarly annexed to any form of govern- 
ment ; but that all magistrates are equally the minis- 
ters of God, who perform the work for which they 
were instituted ; and that the people which institutes 
them, may proportion, regulate, and terminate their 
power, as to time, measure, and number of per- 
sons, as seems most convenient to themselves, 
which can be no other than their own good. For it 
cannot be imagined that a multitude of people should 
send for Numa, or any other person to whom they 
owed nothing, to reign over them, that he might 
live in glory and pleasure ; or for any other reason, 
than that it might be good for them and their 
posterity. This shews the work of all magistrates 
to be always and even" where the same, even the 
doing of justice, and procuring the welfare of those 
that create them. This we learn from common 
sense : Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and the best hu- 
man authors, lay it as an immoveable foundation, 
upon which they build their arguments relating to 



GOVERNMENT. 421 

matters of that nature : and the apostle from better au- 
thority declares, " That rulers are not a terror to good 
works, but to evil : wilt thou then be afraid of the 
power ?* Do that which is good, and thou shalt 
have praise of the same ; for he is the minister of 
God unto thee for good : but if thou do that which 
is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in 
vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
execute wrath upon him that doth evil."f And the 
reason he gives " for praying for kings, and all that 
are in authority," is, " that we may live a quiet and 
peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty." But 
if this be the work of the magistrate, and the glori- 
ous name of God's minister be given to him for the 
performance of it, we may easily see to whom that 
title belongs. " His children and servants ye are, 
whose works ye do." He therefore, and he only, is 
the servant of God, who does the work of God; who 
is a terror to those that do evil, and a praise to those 
that do well ; who beareth the sword for the pun- 
ishment of wickedness and vice, and so governs, that 
the people may live quietly in all godliness and hon- 
esty. The order of his institution is inverted, and 
the institution vacated, if the power be turned to the 
praise of those that do evil, and becomes a terror to 
such as do well ; and that none who live honestly 
and justly can be quiet under it. If God be the 
fountain of justice, mercy, and truth, and those his 
servants who walk in them, no exercise of violence, 
fraud, cruelty, pride, or avarice, is patronized by 

* Rom. xiii. t 1 Tim. ii. 



422 DISCOURSES ON 

him : and they who are the authors of those villanies, 
cannot but be the ministers of him, who sets himself 
up against God ; because it is impossible, that truth 
and falsehood, mercy and cruelty, justice and the 
most violent oppression, can proceed from the same 
root. It was a folly and a lie in those Jews, to call 
themselves the children of Abraham, who did not the 
w r orks of Abraham ; and Christ declared them to 
be the children of the devil,* whose works they did ; 
which words, proceeding from the eternal truth, do 
as w r ell indicate to us whose child and servant every 
man is to be accounted, as to those who first heard 
them. 

If our author's former assertions were void of 
judgment and truth, his next clause shews a great 
defect in his memory, and contradicts the former : 
" The judgments of God," says he, " who hath 
power to give and take away kingdoms, are most 
just ; yet the ministry of men, who execute God's 
judgments without commission, is sinful and damna- 
ble." If it be true, as he says, that we are to look 
at the power, not the ways by which it is gained : 
and that he who hath it, whether it be by usurpation, 
conquest, or any other means, is to be accounted as 
father, or right heir to the father of the people, to 
which title the most sublime and divine privileges 
are annexed, a man, who by the most wicked and 
unjust actions advances himself to the power, be- 
comes immediately the father of the people, and the 

* John viii. 39. 



GOVERNMENT. 423 

minister of God ; which I take to be a piece of di- 
vinity worthy our author and his disciples. 

It may be doubted what he means by a commis- 
sion from God ; for we know of none but what is 
outwardly by his word, or inwardly by his Spirit : 
and I am apt to think, that neither he nor his abettors 
allowing of either, as to the point in question, he 
doth foully prevaricate, in alledging that which he 
thinks cannot be of any effect. If any man should 
say, that the word of God to Moses, Joshua, Ehud, 
Gideon, Samuel, Jeroboam, and Jehu, or any others 
are, in the like cases, rules to be observed by all ; 
because that which was from God was good ; that 
which was good, is good ; and he that does good, is 
justified by it ; he would probably tell us that what 
was good in them, is not good in others : and that 
the word of God doth justify those only to whom it is 
spoken : that is to say, no man can execute the just 
judgments of God to the benefit of mankind, accord- 
ing to the example of those servants of God, without 
damnable sin, unless he have a precise word particu- 
larly directed to him for it, as Moses had. But if 
any man should pretend, that such a word was come 
to him, he would be accounted an enthusiast, and 
obtain no credit. So that, which way soever the 
clause be taken, it appears to be full of fraud, con- 
fessing only in the theory, that which he thinks can 
never be brought into practice; that his beloved vil- 
lanies may be thereby secured, and that the glorious 
examples of the most heroic actions, performed by 
the best and wisest men that ever were in the world 
for the benefit of mankind, mav never be ipszgg&d* 



424 DISCOURSES ON 

The next clause shews, that I did our author no 
wrong in saying', that he gave a right to usurpation ; 
for he plainly says, " That whether the prince 
be the supreme father of his people, or the true 
heir of such a father ; or whether he come to the 
crown by usurpation, or election of the nobles or 
people, or by any other way whatsoever, &c. it is 
the only right and authority of the natural father." 
In the 3d chap. sect. 8 : "It matters not which 
way the king comes by his power, whether by elec- 
tion, donation, succession, or by any other means." 
And in another place, " That we are to regard the 
power, not the means by which it is gained." To 
which I need say no more, than that I cannot suf- 
ficiently admire the ingeniously invented title of 
Hither by usurpation ; and confess, that since there 
is such a tiling in the world, to which not only pri- 
vate men, but whole nations owe obedience, what- 
soever has been said anciently ( as was thought, to 
express the highest excess of fury and injustice) 
as, " jus datum sceleri ; jus omne inferro est situm ; 
jus licet in jugulos nostros sibi fecerit ense j Sylla 
pot ens y Mariusque ferox, <ST China emeritus j Ctesa- 
re&que domus series,"* were solid truths, good 
law and divinity ; which did only signify the actual 
exercise of the power, but induced a conscientious 
obligation of obeying it. The powers so gained 
did carry in themselves the most sacred and inviola- 
ble rights ; and the actors of the most detestable 
villanies thereby became the ministers of God, and 
the fathers of their subdued people. Or if this be 

* Lupan, Sec. 



GOVERNMENT. 425 

not true, it cannot be denied, that Filmer and his 
followers, in the most impudent and outrageous 
blasphemy, have surpassed all that have gone before 
them. 

To confirm his assertions, he gives us a wonder- 
ful explanation of the fifth commandment ; which, 
he says, injoins obedience to princes, under the 
terms of " honour thy father and thy mother ; 
drawing this inference, that as all power is in the 
father, the prince who hath it, cannot be restrained 
by any law ; which being grounded upon the per- 
fect likeness between kings and fathers, no man can 
deny it to be true." But if Claudius was the father 
of the Roman people, I suppose the chaste Messa- 
lina was the mother, and to be honoured by virtue 
of the same commandment : but when I fear that 
such as met her in the most obscene places, were 
not only guilty of adultery, but of incest. The 
same honour must needs belong to Nero, and his 
virtuous Poppas, unless it were transferred to his 
new made woman Sporus ; or perhaps he himself 
was the mother, and the glorious title of " pater 
patrice" belonged to the rascal, who married him 
as a woman. The like may be said of Agathocles, 
Dionysius, Phalaris, Busiris, Machanidas, Peter 
the cruel of Castile, Christiern of Denmark, the 
last princes of the house of Valois in France, and 
Philip the second of Spain. Those actions of theirs, 
which men have ever esteemed most detestable, and 
the whole course of their abominable government 

VOL. I. 3 F 



426 DISCOURSES ON 

did not proceed from pride, avarice, cruelty, mad- 
ness, and lust, but from the tender care of the most 
pious fathers. Tacitus sadly describes the state of 
his country : " Urbs incendiis vastata, consumtis 
antiquissimis delubris, ipso capitolio civium main- 
bus incenso ; pollute ceremonice : magna adulter ia; 
plenum exiliis mare ; infecti cccdibus scopuli j atro- 
cius in urbe s&vitum ; nobilitas, opes, omissi vel 
gesti honor es pro crimine, et ob virtutes certissimum 
exitium."* But he was to blame; all this proceed- 
ed from the ardency of paternal affection. When 
Nero, by the death of Helvidius Priscus and Thra- 
seas, endeavoured to cut up virtue by the roots, 
" ipsam excindere mrtutemf' i \ he did it, because 
he knew it was good for the world that there should 
be no virtuous man in it. When he fired the city, 
and when Caligula wished the people had but one 
neck, that he might strike it off at one blow, they 
did it through a prudent care of their children's good, 
knowing that it would be for their advantage to be 
destroyed ; and that the empty desolated world 
would be no more troubled with popular seditions. 
By the same rule Pharaoh, Eglon, Nebuchodonosor, 
Antiochus, Herod, and the like, were fathers of 
the Hebrews. And without looking far backward, 
or depending upon the faith of history, we may 
enumerate many princes, who in a paternal care of 
their people, have not yielded to Nero or Caligula. 
If our author say true, all those actions of theirs 
which we have attributed to the utmost excess of 

* Hist. I. i. c. 2. | Tacit. Ann. I. xvi. 21. 



GOVERNMENT. 427 

pride, cruelty, avarice, and perfidiousness, pro- 
ceeded from their princely wisdom, and fatherly 
kindness to the nations under them : and we are 
beholden to him for the discovery of so great a mys- 
tery, which hath been hid from mankind from the 
beginning of the world to this day : if not, we may 
still look upon them as children of the devil ; and 
continue to believe, that princes as well as other 
magistrates were set up by the people for the public 
good ; that the praises given to such as are wise, 
just, and good, are purely personal, and can belong 
only to those, who by a due exercise of their power 
do deserve it, and to no others. 



428 DISCOURSES ON 



CHAPTER II. 



SECTION I. 

THAT IT IS NATURAL FOR NATIONS TO GOVERNj 
OR TO CHOOSE GOVERNORS ; AND THAT VIRTUE 
ONLY GIVES A NATURAL PREFERENCE OF ONE 
MAN A20VE ANOTHER, OR REASON WHY ONE 
SHOULD BE CHOSEN RATHER THAN ANOTHER. 

In this chapter our author fights valiantly against 
Bellarmine and Suarez, seeming to think himself 
victorious, if he can shew that either of them hath 
contradicted the other, or himself; but being no 
way concerned in them, I shall leave their followers 
to defend their quarrel : my work is to seek after 
truth ; and though they may have said some things, 
in matters not concerning their beloved cause of 
Popery, that are agreeable to reason, law, or scrip- 
ture, I have litde hope of finding it among those 
who apply themselves chiefly to school- sophistry, as 
the best means to support idolatry. That which I 
maintain, is the cause of mankind ; which ought 
not to suffer, though champions of corrupt princi- 
ples have weakly defended, or maliciously betra} 7 eg! 
it : and therefore, not at all relying on their authority, 
I intend to reject whatsoever they say that agrees 



GOVERNMENT. 429 

not with reason, scripture, or the approved exam- 
ples of the best polished nations. He also attacks 
Plato and Aristotle, upon whose opinions I set a far 
greater value, inasmuch as they seem to have pene- 
trated more deeply into the secrets of human nature ; 
and not only to have judged more rightly of the in- 
terests of mankind, but also to have comprehended 
in their writings the wisdom of the Grecians, with 
all they had learnt from the Phoenicians, Egyptians, 
and Hebrews ; which may lead us to the discovery 
of the truth we seek. If this be our work, the ques- 
tion is not, whether it be a " paradox,' 5 or " a re- 
ceived opinion, that the people naturally govern or 
choose governors," but whether it be true or not ; 
for many paradoxes are true, and the most gross 
errors have often been most common. Though I 
hope to prove, that what he calls a paradox, is not 
only true, but a truth planted in the hearts of men, 
and acknowledged so to be by all that have hearkened 
to the voice of nature, and disapproved by none 
but such as through wickedness, stupidity, or base- 
ness of spirit, seem to have degenerated into the 
worst of beasts, and to have retained nothing of 
men but the outward shape, or the ability of doing 
those mischiefs which they have learnt from their 
master the devil. 

We have already seen, that the patriarchical power 
resembles not the regal in principle or practice : that 
the beginning and continuance of regal power was 
contrary to, and inconsistent with the patriarchal : 
that the first fathers of mankind left all their children 



430 DISCOURSES ON 

independent on each other, and in equal liberty of 
providing for themselves : that every man continued 
in this liberty, till the number so increased, that they 
became troublesome and dangerous to each other ; 
and finding no other remedy to the disorders growing, 
or like to grow among them, joined many families 
into one civil body, that they might the better pro- 
vide for the conveniency, safety, and defence of 
themselves and their children. This was a collation 
of every man's private right into a public stock ; and 
no one having any other right than what was com- 
mon to all, except it were that of fathers over their 
children, they were all equally free when their fathers 
were dead ; and nothing could induce them to join, 
and lessen that natural liberty by joining in societies, 
but the hopes of a public advantage. Such as were 
wise and valiant procured it, by setting up regular 
governments, and placing the best men in the ad- 
ministration ; whilst the weakest and basest fell un- 
der the power of the most boisterous and violent of 
their neighbours. Those of the first sort had their 
root in wisdom and justice, and are called lawful 
kingdoms or commonwealths, and the rules by which 
they are governed, are known by the name of laws. 
These governments have ever been the nurses of vir- 
tue : the nations living under them have flourished 
in peace and happiness, or made wars with glory and 
advantage : whereas the other sort, springing from 
violence and wrong, have ever gone under the odious 
title of tyrannies ; and by fomenting vices, like to 
those from whence they grew, have brought shame 
and misery upon those who were subject to them. 



-GOVERNMENT. 431 

This appears so plainly in scripture, that the assertors 
of liberty want no other patron than God himself; 
and his word so fully justifies what we contend for, 
that it were not necessary to make use of human au- 
thority, if our adversaries did not oblige us to exam- 
ine such as are cited by them. This, in our present 
case, would be an easy work, if our author had rightly 
marked the passages he would make use of, or had 
been faithful in his interpretation or explication of 
such as he truly cites ; but failing grossly in both, 
it is hard to trace him. 

He cites the 16th chapter of the third book of Ar- 
istotle's politics, and I do not find there is more than 
twelve •; or though that wound might be cured, by 
saying the words are in the twelfth, his fraud in per- 
verting the sense were unpardonable, though the 
other mistake be passed over. It is true that Aris- 
totle doth there seem to doubt whether there be any 
such thing as one man naturally a lord over many 
citizens, since a city consists of equals : but in the 
whole scope of that chapter, book, and his other 
writings, he fully shews his doubt did not arise from 
an imagination that one man could naturally inherit 
a right of dominion over many not descended from 
him ; or that they were born under a necessity of 
being slaves to him (for such fancies can proceed only 
from distempered brains); but that civil societies 
aiming at the public good, those who by nature were 
endowed with such virtues or talents as were most 
beneficial to them, ought to be preferred. And 
riorhing can be more contrary to the frantic whimsy 



432 DISCOURSES ON 

of our author, who fancies an hereditary prerogative 
of dominion inherent in a person as father of a peo- 
ple, or heir, or to be reputed heir of the first father, 
when it is certain he is not, but that either he or his 
predecessor came in by election or usurpation, than 
to shew that it is only wisdom, justice, valour, and 
other commendable virtues, which are not hereditary, 
can give the preference; and that the only reason 
why it should be given, is that men so qualified can 
better than others accomplish the ends for which so- 
cieties are constituted : for though, says he, all arc- 
equally free, all are not equally endowed with those 
virtues that render liberty safe, prosperous and happy. 
That equality which is just among equals, is just only 
among equals ; but such as are base, ignorant, 
vicious, slothful, or cowardly, are not equal in nat- 
ural or acquired virtues, to the generous, wise, val- 
iant, and industrious ; nor equally useful to the soci- 
eties in which they live ; they cannot therefore have 
an equal part in the government of them ; they can- 
not equally provide for the common good ; and it is 
not a personal, but a public benefit, that is sought 
in their constitution and continuance. There may 
be an hundred thousand men in an army, who are 
all equally free ; but they only are naturally most fit 
to be commanders or leaders, who most excel in the 
virtues required for the right performance of those 
offices ; and that, not because it is good for them to 
be raised above their brethren, but because it is 
good for their brethren to be guided by them, as it 
is ever good to be governed by the wisest and the 
best. If the nature of man be reason, " deiur 



GOVERNMENT. 433 

digniori," in matters of this kind, is the voice of 
nature ; and it were not only a deviation from reason, 
but a most desperate and mischievous madness, for 
a company going to the Indies, to give the guidance 
of their ship to the son of the best pilot in the world, 
if he want the skill required to that employment, or 
to one who was maliciously set to destroy them ; 
and he only can have a right grounded upon the dic- 
tates of nature, to be advanced to the helm, who 
best knows how to govern it, and has given the best 
testimonies of his integrity and intentions to employ 
his skill for the good of those that are embarked. 
But as the work of a magistrate, especially if he be 
the supreme, is the highest, noblest, and most 
difficult that can be committed to the charge of a 
man, a more excellent virtue is required in the per- 
son who is to be advanced to it, than any other; 
and he that is most excellent in that virtue, is reason- 
ably and naturally to be preferred before any other. 
Aristotle having this in his view, seems to think that 
those who believed it not to be natural for one man 
to be lord of all the citizens, since a city consists of 
equals, had not observed that inequality of endow- 
ments, virtues, and abilities, in men, which render 
some more fit than others for the performance of 
their duties, and the work intended ; but it will not 
be found, as I suppose, that he did ever dream of a 
natural superiority that any man could ever have in 
a civil society, unless it be such a superiority in vir- 
tue as most conduces to the public good. 

VOL. I. 3 G 



434 DISCOURSES Otf 

He confirms this in proceeding to examine the 
different sorts of governments, according to the 
different dispositions of nations ; and is so bold to 
say, " that a popular government is the best for a 
people, who are naturally generous and warlike : 
that the government of a few suits best with those, 
among whom a few men are found to excel others 
in those virtues that are profitable to societies ; and 
that the government of one is good, when that one 
does so far surpass all others in those virtues, that 
he hath more of them than all the rest of the people 
together:" and for the same reason that induced 
him to believe that equality is just among equals, 
he concludes, inequality of power to be most unjust 
unless there be inequality of merit ; and inequality of 
power to be so also, when there is inequality of vir- 
tue, that being the only rule by which every man's 
part ought to be regulated. 

But if it be neither reasonable or just that those 
who are not equal in virtue should be made equal in 
power ; or that such as are equal in virtue, should 
be unequal in power, the most brutal and abomina- 
ble of all extravagancies is to make one or a few, 
who in virtue and abilities to perform civil functions 
are inferior to others, superior to all in power ; and 
the miseries suffered by those nations, who inverting 
the laws of nature and reason, have placed children, 
or men of no virtue, in the government, when men 
that excelled in all virtues were not wanting, do so 
far manifest this truth, that the pains of proving it 
may be spared. 



GOVERNMENT. 435 

It is not necessary for me to inquire, whether it 
be possible to find such a man as Aristotle call " na- 
turd regem," or whether he intended to recommend 
Alexander to the world, for the man designed by 
God and nature to be king over all, because no 
man was equal to him in the virtues that were bene- 
ficial to all. For, pursuing my position, that virtue 
only can give a just and natural preference, I ingenu- 
ously confess that when such a man or race of men, 
as he describes, shall appear in the world, they carry 
the true marks of sovereignty upon them : we ought 
to believe, that God has raised them above all, 
whom he has made to excel all : it were an impious 
folly to think of reducing him into the ordinary level 
of mankind, whom God has placed above it. It 
were better for us to be guided by him, than to fol- 
low our own judgment ; nay, I could almost sa) r , it 
were better to serve such a master, than to be free. 
But this will be nothing to the purpose, till such a 
man, or succession of men, do appear ; and if our 
author would persuade us, that all mankind, or every 
particular, is obliged to a perpetual subjection to one 
man or family, upon any other condition, he must 
do it by the credit of those who favour his design 
more than Aristotle. 

I know not who that will be, but I am confident 
he will find no help from Plato ; for if his principles 
be examined, by which a grave author's sense is 
best comprehended, it will appear, that, all his books 
of law, and of a commonwealth, are chiefly ground- 
ed upon this, "that magistrates are chosen by soci- 



436 DISCOURSES ON 

eties, seeking their own good; and that the best 
men ought to be chosen for the attaining of it :"# 
whereas his whole design of seeking which is the 
best form of government, or what laws do most 
conduce to its perfection and permanency (if one 
rule were by nature appointed for all, and none could 
justly transgress it ; if God had designed an univer- 
sal lord over the whole world, or a particular one 
over every nation, who could be bound by no law) 
were utterly absurd ; and they who write books con- 
cerning political matters, and take upon them to in- 
struct nations how to govern themselves, would be 
found either foolishly to mispend their time, or 
impiously to incite people to rebel against the ordin- 
ance of God. If this can justly be imputed to Plato, 
he is not the wise man he is supposed to have been ; 
and can less deserve the title of divine, which our 
author gives him : but if he remain justly free from 
such censures, it must be confessed, that whilst he 
seeks what is good for a people, and to convince 
them by reason that it is so, he takes it for granted, 
that they have a liberty of chusing that which ap- 
pears to be the best to them. He first says, " that 
this good consists in the obtaining of justice;"! 
but farther explaining himself, he shews, " that under 
the name of justice he comprehends all that tends to 
their perfection and felicity ; inasmuch as every peo- 
ple, by joining in a civil society, and creating ma- 
gistrates, doth seek its own good ; and it is just, 
that he or they who are created, should, to the ut- 

* Plato de leg. 8c cle republ. f Plato de leg* 



GOVERNMENT. 437 

most of their power, accomplish the end of their 
creation, and lead the people to justice, without 
which there is neither perfection nor happiness : that 
the proper act of justice is to give to every one his 
due ; to man that which belongs to man, and to God 
that which is God's. But as no man can be just or 
desire to be so, unless he know, that justice is good ; 
nor know that it is good, unless he know that original 
justice and goodness, through which all that is just is 
just, and all that is good is good, it is impossible for 
any man to perform the part of a good magistrate, 
unless he have the knowledge of God ; or to bring 
a people to justice, unless he bring them to the 
knowledge of God, who is the root of all justice and 
goodness.' ' If Plato therefore deserve credit, he 
can only duly perform the part of a good magistrate, 
whose moral virtues are ripened and heightened by a 
superinduction of divine knowledge. " The misery 
of man proceeds from his being separated from God : 
this separation is wrought by corruption : his res- 
titution therefore to felicity and integrity, can only 
be brought about by his re-union to the good from 
which he is fallen." Plato looks upon this as the 
only worthy object of man's desire ; and in his laws 
and politics he intends not to teach us how to erect 
manufactures, and to increase trade or riches ; but 
how magistrates may be helpful to nations in the 
manner before mentioned, and consequently what 
men are fit to be magistrates. If our author there- 
fore would make use of Plato's doctrine to his end, 
he ought to have proved, that there is a family in 
every nation, to the chief of which, and successively 



438 DISCOURSES ON 

to the next in blood, God does ever reveal and infuse 
such a knowledge of himself, as may render him a 
light to others ; and, failing in this, all that he says 
is to no purpose. 

The weakness in which we are bom, renders us 
unable to attain the good of ourselves : we want 
help in all things, especially in the greatest. The 
fierce barbarity of a loose multitude, bound by no 
law, and regulated by no discipline, is wholly repug- 
nant to it : whilst every man fears his neighbour, and 
has no other defence than his own strength, he must 
live in that perpetual anxiety which is equally con- 
trary to that happiness and that sedate temper of 
mind which is required for the search of it. The 
first step towards the cure of this pestilent evil, is for 
many to join in one body, that every one may be 
protected by the united force of all ; and the various 
talents that men possess, may by good discipline be 
rendered useful to the whole ; as the meanest piece 
of wood or stone, being placed by a wise architect, 
conduces to the beauty of the most glorious building. 
But every man bearing in his own breast affections, 
passions, and vices, that are repugnant to this end, 
and no man owing any submission to his neighbour ; 
none will subject the correction or restriction of 
themselves to another, unless he also submit to the 
same rule. They are rough pieces of timber or 
stone, which it is necessary to cleave, saw, or cut : 
this is the work of a skilful builder, and he only is 
capable of erecting a great fabric, who is so : magis- 
trates are political architects ; and they only can per- 



GOVERNMENT. 439 

form the work incumbent on them, who excel in po- 
litical virtues. Nature, in variously framing the 
minds of men, according to the variety of uses in 
which they may be employed, in order to the institu- 
tion and preservation of civil societies, must be our 
guide, in allotting to every one his proper work. 
And Plato, observing this variety, affirms, " that the 
laws of nature cannot be more absurdly violated, than 
by giving the government of a people to such as do 
not excel others in those arts and virtues that tend to 
the ultimate ends for which governments are insti- 
tuted." By this means those who are slaves by na- 
ture, or rendered so by their vices, are often set above 
those that God and nature had fitted for the highest 
commands ; and societies which subsist only by or- 
der, fall into corruption, when all order is so prepos- 
terously inverted, and the most extreme confusion in- 
troduced. This is an evil that Solomon detested : 
" Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low 
places : I have seen servants upon horses, and 
princes walking as servants upon the earth."* 
They who understand Solomon's language, will 
easily see, that the rich, and the princes he means, 
are such only who are rich in virtue and wisdom, and 
who ought to be preferred for those qualities : and 
when he says, a servant that reigneth is one of the 
" three things the earth cannot bear," he can only 
mean such as deserve to be servants ; for when they 
reign, they do not serve, but are served by others : 
which perfectly agrees with what we learn from 

* Eccl. x. 7. 



440 DISCOURSES ON 

Plato, and plainly shews, that true philosophy is per- 
fectly conformable with what is taught us by those 
who were divinely inspired. Therefore though I 
should allow to our author, that Aristotle, in those 
words, " it seems to some not to be natural for one 
man to be lord of all the citizens, since the city con- 
sists of equals," did speak the opinion of others 
rather than his own ; and should confess that he and 
his master Plato did acknowledge a natural inequality 
among men ; it would be nothing to his purpose : 
for the inequality, and the rational superiority due to 
some, or to one, by reason of that inequality, did not 
proceed from blood or extraction, and had nothing 
patriarchal in it ; but consisted solely in the virtues 
of the persons, by which they were rendered more 
able than others to perform their duty for the good 
of the society. Therefore, if these authors are to be 
trusted, whatsoever place a man is advanced to in a 
city, it is not for his own sake, but for that of the 
city ; and we are not to ask who was his father, but 
what are his virtues in relation to it. This induces a 
necessity of distinguishing between a simple and a 
relative inequality ; for, if it were possible for a man 
to have great virtues, and yet no way beneficial to 
the society of which he is, or to have some one vice 
that renders them useless, he could have no pretence 
to magistratical power more than any other. They 
who are equally free, may equally enjoy their free- 
dom ; but the powers that can only be executed by 
such as are endowed with great wisdom, justice, and 
valour, can belong to none, nor be rightly conferred 
upon any, except such as excel in those virtues. 



GOVERNMENT. 441 

And if no such can be found, all are equally by turns 
to participate of the honours annexed to magistracy ; 
and law, which is said to be written reason, cannot 
justly exalt those whom nature, which is reason, 
hath depressed, nor depress those whom nature hath 
exalted* It cannot make kings slaves, nor slaves 
kings, without introducing that evil, which, if we 
believe Solomon and the Spirit by which he spoke, 
" the earth cannot bear." This may discover what 
law -givers deserve to be reputed wise or just ; and 
what decrees or sanctions ought to be reputed laws. 
Aristotle, proceeding by this rule, rather tells us who 
is naturally a king, than where we should find him ; 
and after having given the highest praises to this 
true natural king, and his government, he sticks not 
to declare that of one man, in virtue equal or inferior 
to others, to be a mere tyranny, even the worst of 
all, as it is the corruption of the best (or, as our 
author calls it, the most divine) and such as can be 
fit only for those barbarous and stupid nations, which, 
though bearing the shape of men, are little different 
from beasts. Whoever therefore will from Aris- 
totle's words infer, that nature has designed one 
man, or succession of men, to be lords of every 
country, must shew that man to be endowed with all 
the virtues that render him fit for so great an office, 
which he does not bear for his own pleasure, glory, 
or profit, but for the good of those that are under 
him ; and, if that be not done, he must look after 
other patrons than Aristotle for his opinion. 
vol. i, s H 



442 DISCOURSES ON 

Plato does more explicitly say, that the civil or 
politic man, the shepherd, father, or king of a people, 
is the same, designed for the same work, enabled to 
perform it by the excellency of the same virtues, and 
made perfect by the infusion of the divine wisdom. 
This is Plato's monarch, and I confess, that where- 
soever he does appear in the world, he ought to be 
accounted as sent from God for the good of that 
people. His government is the best that can be 
set up among men ; and if assurance can be 
given, that his children, heirs, or successors, 
shall forever be equal to him in the above men- 
tioned virtues, it were a folly and a sin to bring 
him under the government of any other, or to 
an equality with them, since God had made him 
to excel them all; and it is better for them to 
be ruled by him, than to follow their own judg- 
ment. This is that which gives him the preference ; 
" He is wise through the knowledge of the truth, 
and thereby becomes good, happy, pure, beautiful 
and perfect. The divine light, shining forth in him, 
is a guide to others ; and he is a fit leader of a people 
to the good that he enjoys."* If this can be ex- 
pressed by words in fashion, this is his prerogative ; 
this is the royal charter given to him by God ; and 
to him only, who is so adapted for the performance 
of his office. He that should pretend to the same 
privileges, without the same abilities to perform the 
works for which they are granted, would exceed the 

* Plato in Alcib. 1. i. 2. 



GOVERNMENT. 443 

folly of a child, that takes upon him a burden which 
can only be borne by a giant ; or the madness of one 
who presumes to give physic, and understands not 
the art of a physician, thereby drawing guilt upon 
himself and death upon his patient. It were as vain 
to expect that a child should carry the giant's burden, 
and that an ignorant man should give wholesome 
physic, as that one who lives void of all knowledge 
of good, should conduct men to it. Whensoever, 
therefore, such a man as is above described does 
not appear, nature and reason instruct us to seek 
him or them who are most like to him ; and to lay 
such burdens upon them as are proportionable to 
their strength ; which is as much as to say, to prefer 
every man according to his merit, and assign to 
every one such works as he seems able to accom- 
plish. 

But that Plato and Aristotle may neither be 
thought unreasonably addicted to monarchy ; nor, 
wholly rejecting it, to have talked in vain of a mon- 
arch, that is not to be found ; it is good to consider 
that this is not a fiction. Moses, Joshua, Samuel, 
and others, were such as they define > and were 
made to be such, by that communion with God 
which Plato requires : and he in all his writings, in- 
tending the institution of such a discipline as should 
render men happy, wise, and good, could take no 
better way to bring his countrymen to it, than by 
shewing them, that wisdom, virtue, and purity, 
only, could make a natural difference among men. 



444 DISCOURSES ON 

>Tis not my work to justify these opinions of 
Plato, and his scholar Aristotle : they were men, 
and though wise and learned, subject to error. If 
they erred in these points, it hurts not me, nor the 
cause I maintain, since I make no other use of their 
books than to shew the impudence and prevarica- 
tion of those, who gather small scraps out of good 
books to justify their assertions concerning such 
kings as are known amongst us; which, being exam- 
ined, are found to be wholly against them ; and, 
if they were followed, would destroy their persons 
and power. 

But our author's intention being only to cavil, or 
to cheat such as are not versed in the writings of the 
ancients, or at least to cause those who do not make 
truth their guide, to waver and fluctuate in their 
discourses, he does in one page say, " That with- 
out doubt Moses' history of the creation guided 
these philosophers in finding out this lineal subjec- 
tion :" and in the next affirms, " That the ignorance 
of the creation occasioned several amongst the hea- 
then philosophers to think that men met together as 
herds of cattle :" whereas they could not have been 
ignorant of the creation, if they had read the books 
that Moses writ ; and having that knowledge, they 
could not think that men met together as herds of 
cattle. However, I deny that any of them did ever 
dream of that lineal subjection, derived from the 
first parents of mankind, or that any such thing was 
to be learnt from Moses. Though they did not 



GOVERNMENT. 445 

perhaps justly know the beginning of mankind, they 
did know the beginnings and progress of the govern- 
ments under which they lived ; and, being assured 
that the first kingdoms had been those which they 
called " heroum reg?ia," that is, of those who had 
been most beneficial to mankind ; that their descend- 
ants in many places, degenerating from their virtues, 
had given nations occasion to set up aristocracies ; 
and they also falling into corruption, to institute de- 
mocracies, or mixed governments ; did rightly con- 
clude, that every nation might justly order their 
own affairs according to their own pleasure, and 
could have neither obligation nor reason to set up 
one man or a few above others, unless it did appear 
to them that they had more of those virtues which 
conduce to the good of civil societies, than the rest 
of their brethren. 

Our author's cavil upon Aristotle's opinion, 
" That those who are wise in mind are by nature 
fitted to be lords, and those who are strong of body 
ordained to obey," deserves no answer ; for he 
plainly falsifies the text : Aristotle speaks only of 
those qualities which are required for every purpose ; 
and means no more, than that such as are eminent 
in the virtues of the mind deserve to govern, though 
they do not excel in bodily strength ; and that they 
who are strong of body, though of little understand- 
ing, and uncapable of commanding, may be useful 
in executing the commands of others : but is so far 
from denying that one man may excel in all the per- 
fections of mind and body, that he acknowledges 



446 DISCOURSES ON 

him only to be a king by nature who does so, both 
being required for the full performance of his duty. 
And if this be not true, I suppose that one who is 
like Agrippa Posthumus, " corporis viribus stolide 
ferox,"* may be fit to govern many nations ; and 
Moses or Samuel, if they naturally wanted bodily 
strength, or that it decayed by age, might justly be 
made slaves, which is a discovery worthy our au- 
thor's invention. 



SECTION II. 



EVERY MAN THAT HATH CHILDREN, HATH THE 
RIGHT OF A FATHER, AND IS CAPABLE OF PRE- 
FERMENT IN A SOCIETY COMPOSED OF MANY. 

I am not concerned in making good what Suarez 
says : a Jesuit may speak that which is true ; but 
it ought to be received, as from the devil, cau- 
tiously, lest mischief be hid under it : and Sir 
Robert's frequent prevarications upon the scrip- 
ture, and many good authors, give reason to sus- 
pect he may have falsified one, that few Protest- 
ants read, if it served to his purpose ; and not 
mentioning the place, his fraud cannot easily be dis- 
covered, unless it be by one who has leisure to ex- 

* Tac. aim. I. i. 3. 



GOVERNMENT. 447 

amine all his vastly voluminous writings. But as to 
the point in question, that pains may be saved; there 
is nothing that can be imputed to the invention of 
Suarez ; for, u that Adam had only an economical, 
not a political power,' ' is not the voice of a Jesuit, 
but of nature and common sense : for politic signify- 
ing no more in Greek, than civil in Latin, it is evi- 
dent there could be no civil power where there was 
no civil society ; and there could be none between 
him and his children, because a civil society is com- 
posed of equals and fortified by mutual compacts, 
which could not be between him and his children ; 
at least, if there be any thing of truth in our author's 
doctrine, " that all children do perpetually and abso- 
lutely depend upon the will of their father. ' ' Suarez 
seems to have been of another opinion ; and observ- 
ing the benefits we receive from parents, and the ven- 
eration we owe to them to be reciprocal, he could 
not think any duty could extend farther than the 
knowledge of the relation upon which it was ground- 
ed ; and makes a difference between the power of a 
father, before and after his children are made free ; 
that is in truth, before and after they are able to pro- 
vide for themselves, and to deliver their parents 
from the burden of taking care of them : which will 
appear rational to any who are able to distinguish be- 
tween what a man of fifty years old, subsisting by 
himself, and having a family of his own, or a child 
of eight, doth owe to his father : the same reason 
that obliges a child to submit intirely to the will of 
his parents, when he is utterly ignorant of all things, 
does permit, and often injoin, men of ripe age to 



448 DISCOURSES ON 

examine the commands they receive before they 
obey them ; and it is not more plain, that I owe all 
manner of duty, affection, and respect to him that 
did beget and educate me, than that I can owe noth- 
ing on any such account to one that did neither. 

This may have been the opinion of Suarez : but I 
can hardly believe such a notion, as " that Adam, 
in process of time, might have servants," could 
proceed from any other brain than our author's ; for 
if he had lived to this day, he could have had none 
under him but his own children ; and if a family be 
not complete without servants, his must always have 
been defective ; and his kingdom must have been so 
too, if that has such a resemblance to a family as our 
author fancies. This is evident, that a hard father 
may use his children as servants, or a rebellious, 
stubborn son may deserve to be so used ; and a 
gentle and a good master may shew that kindness to 
faithful and well-deserving servants, which resem- 
bles the sweetness of a fatherly rule : but neither of 
them can change their nature ; a son can never grow 
to be a servant, nor a servant to be a son. If a family 
therefore be not complete, unless it consist of chil- 
dren and servants, it cannot be like to a kingdom 
or city, which is composed of freemen and equals ; 
servants may be in it, but are not members of it. 
As truth can never be repugnant to justice, it 
is impossible this should be a prejudice to the 
paternal rule, which is most just ; especially when 
a grateful remembrance of the benefits received 
doth still remain, with a necessary and perpetual 



GOVERNMENT. 449 

obligation of repaying them in all affection and duty : 
whereas the care of ever providing for their families, 
as they did probably increase in the time of our first 
long-living fathers, would have been an insupporta- 
ble burthen to parents, if it had been incumbent on 
them. We do not find that Adam exercised any 
such power over Cain, when he had slain Abel, as 
our author fancies to be regal : the murderer went 
out and built a city for himself, and called it by 
the name of his first-born. And we have not the 
least reason to believe that after Adam's death Cain 
had any dominion over his brethren, or their pos- 
terity ; or any one of them over him and his. He 
feared that whosoever saw him would kill him, 
which language does not agree with the rights be- 
longing to the haughty title of heir apparent to the 
dominion of the whole earth. The like was prac- 
tised by Noah and his sons, who set up colonies for 
themselves; but lived as private men in obscure 
places, whilst their children of the fourth or fifth 
generation, especially of the youngest and accursed 
son, were great and powerful kings as is fully prov- 
ed in the first chapter. 

Though this had been otherwise, it would have 
no effect upon us ; for no argument drawn from the 
examples of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, if they and 
their children had continued under the dominion of 
Noah as long as he lived, can oblige me to resign 
myself, and all my concernments, absolutely into the 
hands of one who is not my father. But when the 

VOL. I. 3 1 



450 BISCOURSES OK 

contrary is evidently true in them, and their next 
ensuing generations, it is an admirable boldness in 
our author to think of imposing upon us for an 
eternal and universal law (when the knowledge of 
our first progenitors is utterly extinguished) that 
which was not at all regarded by those who could 
not be ignorant of their own original, or the duty 
thereby incumbent upon them, or their immediate 
fathers then living, to whom the rights must have 
belonged, if there had been any such thing in nature, 
or that they had been of any advantage to them : 
whereas in truth, if there had been such a law in the 
beginning, it must have vanished of itself for want 
of being exercised in the beginning, and could not 
possibly be revived after four thousand years, when 
no man in the world can possibly know to whom the 
universal right of dominion over the whole world, 
or particular nations, does belong ; for it is in vain 
to speak of a right, when no one man can have a 
better title to it than any other. But there being no 
precept in the scripture for it, and the examples 
directed or approved by God himself, and his most 
faithful servants, being inconsistent with, and con- 
trary to it, we may be sure there never was any 
such thing; and that men being left to the free use 
of their own understanding, may order and dispose 
of their own affairs as they think fit. No man can 
have a better title than another, unless for his per- 
sonal virtues ; every man that in the judgment of 
those concerned excels in them, may be advanced : 
and those nations that through mistake set up such 
as are unworthy, or do not take right measures in 



GOVERNMENT. 451 

providing for a succession of men worthy, and other 
things necessary to their welfare, may be guilty of 
great folly, to their own shame and misery; but 
can do no injustice to any in relation to an hereditary 
right, which can be naturally in none. 



SECTION III. 



GOVERNMENT IS NOT INSTITUTED FOR THE GOOD 
OF THE GOVERNOR, BUT OF THE GOVERNED; 
AND POWER IS NOT AN ADVANTAGE, BUT A 
BURDEN. 

The follies with which our author endeavours to 
corrupt and trouble the world, seem to proceed from 
his fundamental mistakes of the ends for which gov- 
ernments are constituted ; and from an opinion that 
an excessive power is good for the governor, or the 
diminution of it a prejudice ; whereas common sense 
teaches, and all good men acknowledge, that govern- 
ments are not set up for the advantage, profit, plea- 
sure, or glory of one or a few men, but for the 
good of the society. For this reason Plato and 
Aristotle find no more certain way of distinguishing 
between a lawful king and a tyrant, than that the 
first seeks to procure the common good, and the 
other his own pleasure or profit ; and doubt not to 
declare, that he, who according to his institution 



452 DISCOURSES ON 

was the first, destroys his own being and degene- 
rates into the latter, if he deflect from that rule : he 
that was the best of men becomes the worst ; and 
the father or shepherd of the people makes himself 
their enemy. And we may from hence collect, that 
in all controversies concerning the power of magis- 
trates, we are not to examine what conduces to their 
profit or glory, but what is good for the public. 

His second error is no less gross and mischievous 
than the first ; and that absolute power to which he 
would exalt the chief magistrate, would be burden- 
some, and desperately dangerous, if he had it. The 
highest places are always slippery : men's eyes daz- 
zle when they are carried up to them ; and all that 
falls from them are mortal. Few kings or tyrants, 
says Juvenal,* go down to the grave in peace ; and 
he did not imprudently couple them together, be- 
cause in his time few or no kings were known who 
were not tyrants. Dyonisius thought no man left a 
tyranny, till he was drawn out by the heels. But 
Tacitus says, \ " nescit quam grave SC intolerandum 
sit cuncta regendi onus^X Moses could not bear 

* Sine caede 5c sanguine pauci 

Deseendunt reges, 8c sicca morte tyranni. 

Juv. Sat. x. 1. 11 2. 

f It is somewhat different in Tacitus. Tiberius, after Au- 
gustus' death, says in his speech to the senate, " Se expe- 

riendo didicisse, quam arduum? quam subjectum fortunx, re- 
gendi cuncta onus." 

\ Ann. 1. i. 11. 



GOVERNMENT. 453 

it : Gideon would not accept of any resemblance of 
it. The moral sense of Jotham's wise parable is 
eternal : the bramble coveted the power which the 
vine, olive, and fig-tree refused. The worst and 
basest of men are ambitious of the highest places, 
which the best and wisest reject ; or if some, who 
may be otherwise well qualified.... 

[In this place two pages are wanting in the origi- 
nal manuscript. J 

... .as the fittest to be followed by mankind. If these 
philosophers and divines deserve credit, Nimrod, 
Ninus, Pharaoh, and the rest of that accursed crew, 
did not commit such excesses as were condemned 
by God, and abhorred by good men ; but gaining to 
themselves the glorious character of his vicegerents, 
left their practices as a perpetual law to all succeeding 
generations ; whereby the world, and every part of 
it, would be forever exposed to the violence, cruelty, 
and madness of the most wicked men that it should 
produce. But if these opinions comprehend an ex- 
travagancy of wickedness and madness, that was not 
known among men, till some of these wretches pre- 
sumed to attempt the increase of that corruption un- 
der which mankind groans, by adding fuel to the 
worst of all vices ; we may safely return to our pro- 
positions, that, God having established no such au- 
thority as our author fancies, nations are left to the 
use of their own judgment, in making provision for 
their own welfare ; that there is no lawful magistrate 
over any of them, but such as they have set up ; that 



454 

in creating them, they do not seek the advantage of 
their magistrate but their own : and having found 
that an absolute power over the people is a burden, 
which no man can bear ; and that no wise or good 
man ever desired it ; from thence conclude, that it 
is not good for any to have it, nor just for any to af- 
fect it, though it were personally good for himself; 
because he is not exalted to seek his own good, but 
that of the public. 



END OF VOLUME I. 



DEARE AND ANDREWS, PRINTERS- 




A 




d. ->■ 



*^' 






V $.* * *= *>i, > ^fe, .JSaST * ,iV I 

J? < ' o * ^ ■* A S 



'/■ *C 






' o > 















,0 O 






h> ^ 




c*> «* 



G C 



> 















C^ 





'J' .v\ 






^\ 



.A 









^ 5 "^ 



■•-■-..• 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




01 1 799 533 1 



ilsa 
IHE1 

■www 



aaWB 

wm mg 

HjflBMMi|| 

Dm 






BH 



■a 



SB N 

BbB 



59 



OS 



n 

aJCCi 



1191 

KBMSBflg! 
MgfflgSaiae 

DfiMBi 



■Bum 



■w 



mi 



no 
■Hni 



WffliP 

■NHnH 
MnegM 

1111 

Jew 

IE 



